Annual Performance Report Narrative: Accelerating Ghanaian Social Enterprises from Idea to Impact

The project started in September 2018 and officially launched in November 2018 with three components: the Ashesi Venture Incubator, the Ecosystem Convening, and the dissemination of Lean Research. Essential partners for the operations and development of NEXTi2i are USAID, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Development Lab (MIT D-Lab), and the Ashesi Foundation. The project targets Ashesi University students and recent graduates, stakeholders of the entrepreneurial ecosystem in Ghana, and researchers and developers of entrepreneurship and humanitarian development in Ghana. Twelve fellows were accepted into the Ashesi Venture Incubator (AVI) and attended an orientation that featured business development mini-sessions to walk them through vision, structure, operations, management, and evaluating their businesses. Approximately 42% of AVI fellows are women and each fellow's business addresses at least one United Nations Sustainable Development Goal. Five Lean Research Workshops were performed at Ashesi University, led by MIT D-Lab, and one MOOC was presented by MIT D-Lab on edX for a global audience. Workshops at Ashesi University were tailored for incubator fellows, university faculty and staff, practitioners (e.g., NGO representatives and business managers), and hub representatives. The Ashesi Venture Incubator (AVI) for recent graduates was designed and launched, with the first cohort of participants starting AVI as fellows in September 2019. Faculty, students, and fellows are trained in the Lean Research approach and they are applying the techniques to their work. Five workshops were conducted to train individuals in the Lean Research approach, and four faculty members incorporated the Lean Research approach into three courses at Ashesi. NEXTi2i started plans to help workshop and course participants create case studies of how they apply the Lean Research approach to their work and research. An innovation ecosystem is established in order to share learnings, engage mentors, and bring together key actors in the ecosystem. The first annual ecosystem convening was conducted, with challenges identified and participants starting to identify and create resources for entrepreneurs. Working groups were created for each challenge addressed. Partnerships with institutions of higher education, such as Massachusetts Institute of Technology D-Lab (MIT D-Lab), have been established to transfer knowledge and facilitate the creation of additional resources for Lean Research workshops and integrating the Lean Research framework into courses at Ashesi University.