International seeds versus Kenyan 'ownership': How best to manage the chicken and the egg?

Happy New Year!

In our recent meeting with the Aga Khan Foundation, a question was raised about the effectiveness of external organizations planting seeds for change in Africa without domestic 'ownership' (read: financial endowment and input into operations) of the initiative.

SE101 has taken the approach to initiate our project on a grassroots level, providing the structure, allowing for our students to take ownership of their business learning and planning and to create a network amongst our past participants as our program grows along their business needs. We are primarily funded by independent North American philanthropy and have not made the choice to secure domestic Kenyan sponsorship yet.

While the argument for domestic vested interest is valid and important to long term success, the issue is more over the foundation and gestation of the initiative. Which comes first and which will result in the most durable and successful initiative? Is it more important that the participants feel ownership or sponsors? Should it be built with integrative channels for domestic sponsors to 'make it their own' along the way or should you be working to involve these domestic players from the outset?

Your insight, reference to relevant sources on the topic and opinions would be appreciated! Please feel free to reply with a comment here, on our facebook page, or on twitter @SE101Africa.
Posted by Les Robertson