In 2016, B Lab issued the first-ever call-to-action for the global B Corp Community to improve collective impact and take action to move toward an inclusive economy; the aptly titled B Corp Inclusion Challenge. The B Corp Inclusion Challenge invites every B Corp to set goals and improve on 3 or more inclusion metrics in the B Impact Assessment by September 2017.

B Lab East Africa was excited to host a workshop in Nairobi with 2 great companies, Daproim Africa and Node Africa (already inclusive in their names).

Claire from Daproim Africa (Certified B-Corp) gave examples of youth inclusion at their organizaation that focuses on creating employment for disadvantage youth through training and sourcing for job opportunities. With a focus on peer mentoring for effective inclusion of disadvantage youth.

Phares from Node Africa, a consulting, design and deployment organization for complex cloud based solutions discussed the need as a CEO to change the narrative in empowering women in a typically male dominated industry. He leads by example through conscious and consistent inclusion in the little things that matter to the workforce such as involvement in meetings and efforts to make emotional connections.

Olivia from B Lab East Africa brought the idea of positive and negative diversity, with a focus on bringing together and harnessing diverse forces and resources to puts the concept and practice of diversity into action. We must be conscious of unconscious gender biases that exist.

At the end of the workshop the group issued a call-to-action for each attendee to identify how they would propel the inclusion conversation in their organizations after the session and report back every quarter.

In case you are interested in joining the challenge, here are a few pointers we discussed. How can we?

• Be more conscious of our unconscious biases especially with gender roles?
• Create structured but flexible work environments that support productivity?
• Create a feedback culture and KPIs as a mode of job ownership and growth?
• Establish equitable and transparent pay in the organization?
• Hire for ATTITUDE and train for SKILL to upscale or bridge the talent gap?

For more information please reach out to Olivia@bcorporation.net.

You can also check out the inclusion metrics that are part of the B Corp Inclusion challenge here! We hope you can join us all in being inclusive.

ABOUT DAPROIM AFRICA

Established in 2006, Daproim Africa is an outsourcing social enterprise that offers quality and affordable volume data management services to local and international clients by training and employing disadvantaged youth in East Africa. It is currently employing 120 full time staff and over 400 virtual university students.

ABOUT NODE AFRICA

Node Africa is company focused on helping companies with their IT infrastructure. We make the journey to the cloud simpler, quicker and pain free. With an option of hosting on our own infrastructure locally and with third party infrastructure abroad, we make sure that your data is secure and reliable.

ABOUT B LAB EAST AFRICA

B Lab East Africa is a nonprofit organization that supports a global movement of people using business as a force for good. We certify high impact for-profit organizations as B Corporations, and then provide tools for other organizations to follow. These tools include a free impact assessment, a database that aggregates and analyzes the assessment data, and a legal framework that enables mission alignment for companies. We then inspire billions of consumers, workers, investors and others to support businesses who are a force for good.

If you are interested to learn more about B Lab EA’s work, reach us at hello@b-labeastafrica.net.