July 27, 2021 – Recently, the Whitaker Peace & Development Initiative (WPDI) – in partnership with the BNP Paribas Foundation and the RCS Group – held its second Business Plan Competition in the Cape Flats area of Cape Town, South Africa. Conducted after weeks of training, the competition drew 12 entries and strong competition, with three businesses ultimately emerging as the winners.
As part of our Business Bootcamp initiative, WPDI regularly hosts Business Plan Competitions, which aim to not only select promising projects but also to train local youths in the community on how to strengthen a good idea into a solid business plan and on how to defend and market their enterprises. Thus, the competitive process contributes to the dissemination of a culture of entrepreneurship as part of our conviction that development and peace are two sides of the same coin. In vulnerable places like Cape Flats, where the youth unemployment rate is over 50%, the path towards peace is obstructed by the lack of jobs and economic opportunities outside the formal sector. In this light, helping young people create opportunities for themselves is all the more relevant because it profits both entrepreneurs and their communities which benefit from services, job creation, and the immaterial benefits that thriving businesses generate around them.
The Business Plan Competition WPDI held in Cape Flats last month was our second competition there. Conducted from June 1-21, it was exclusively open to trainees who had successfully completed the basic and intermediate levels of the Business & Entrepreneurship courses that WPDI offers at our Community Learning Center in Athlone. The competition started with a comprehensive skills refresher training to reinforce the capacity of participants to identify viable business ideas and create a compelling business plan. The participants then submitted 12 well-crafted proposals to an expert committee composed of WPDI experts and local partners. After the committee reviewed the proposals, the trainees received individual feedback before they resubmitted them for a final review.
Ultimately, the review committee retained three proposals as the competition’s finalists: 10 to 10, a food truck specializing in low-cost food, Thrive Nation Tradehouse, a contracting, marketing, and transportation business, and The Gantouw Gazette, a community-focused newspaper. “My training helped empower me in ways I haven’t experienced before,” said Beverley, the founder of 10 to 10. “I learned so much and am so happy to have won the competition. I’m looking forward to starting and growing my business.” Nashad, who will be launching The Gantouw Gazette, echoed a similar sentiment, telling us that “I was prompted to launch my business because I noticed how my community doesn’t receive adequate news or information. My training helped me identify this gap, and I hope to make my newspaper relevant to the community.”
The three winning proposals will receive grant funding as well as mentoring, coaching, and other backstopping support to help ensure that each is a success. If the competition’s enthusiastic character is any indicator, we are confident that all the participants, both the finalists and the others, will go on to achieve great things and have a real impact on their communities.
