Back to Basics – Jobs – Food and Shelter

Currently there are 800,000 graduates that are unemployed in South Africa. This means that our universities are producing a significant amount of unwanted skills for the needs of industry and our country.

This prompts the questions: –
· Does our higher education system produce unemployable graduates?
· Does our schooling system create unemployed youth after grade 12?
· Should we relook at the antiquated 1900 English curriculum applied in schools today?
· Are what is taught relevant to what is needed?
· Should we not cater for children who are not mathematical or scientifically inclined?
· Should we not teach basic entrepreneurial skills?

“Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.” – Albert Einstein.

Not all children are mathematically inclined. Yet, if we measure children’s ability with maths and science as a yardstick of intelligence we may make them feel inferior and classify them as “stupid”. There are many careers that do not require maths and science as a base for a career and there are many examples of “success” without mathematics and science. Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs state the basic fundamental needs are FOOD and SHELTER. Based on this simple premise, it is obvious that JOBS are created producing these two fundamental commodities.

We believe that there should be three tiers of education:

1. Mathematics and Science (Status Quo) for those who are mathematically inclined
2. FOOD – Teach learners to produce food and related skills
3. SHELTER – Teach learners how to build and develop related entrepreneurial skills

We propose to build two new classrooms per school in South Africa to cater for those learners who are not mathematically inclined and wish to follow a career in either “Food” or “Shelter”( Supply physiological needs – Basic needs)  at early school level, in order to address the long-term needs of South Africa and Africa.

Africa is a rapidly urbanising continent, which according to the UN Habitat, is increasing at a rate of 230,000 people who are moving into cities across Africa each week. Currently, sub-Saharan Africa alone has an estimated housing deficit of 30 million units and every year, the backlog of houses across Africa’s 54 countries collectively increases by 4 million houses.

With the population of the African continent expected to reach a staggering 2 billion people by 2050, almost twice the population number estimated in 2010, it is a stark reality that every year, there will be more and more people needing homes, over and above the current demand.

The focus therefore should be on encourage skills to produce food.

Secondly, decent quality housing is one of the key factors in the fight against poverty and social exclusion. It is not just about putting a roof over someone’s head. Academic research proves that access to a clean and stable home implicates an improvement in security, health and education. Although the extensive and many complex difficulties relating to the delivery of affordable housing in Africa is well documented, the ever-increasing demand for housing keeps mounting and continues to be a major concern. Projections by the United Nations would indicate that 53% of Africa’s inhabitants would comprise the urban population, of which 62% of city dwellers would reside in slums or informal settlements. What’s more troubling is that it appears that the incentive to move to the cities in Africa seems to be completely independent from economic growth and development and this is not expected to ease in the foreseeable future. There is no doubt that the challenge facing the continent is colossal, but the question is whether conventional building methods are able to cope with the ever-increasing demand for quality homes.

Moladi, a South African patented technology, established in 1986, makes housing accessible to low-income people through innovative and eco-friendly technology. An award winning, NHBRC and bank approved system; moladi combines construction with economic development – “Fight poverty unemployment and crime through housing.” Moladi offers training locally for the unemployed thereby creating jobs and empowering the community as a whole. Due to the simplicity of the method, construction techniques and skills can be transferred in a short time. In this way, the communities benefit from affordable shelter and entrepreneurs are skilled at the same time, creating employment.

In 2006 moladi was presented with the Eric Molobi Innovation Hub Award in Parliament. We were invited by the Smithsonian Institute to exhibit at the United Nations in New York and recently by the World Bank to Washington to present moladi as a “Housing for All” solution to the International Finance Corporation (IFC).

The moladi team is passionate about housing and social development and believe that the moladi building technology is a significant instrument to overcome the following challenges:
Establishing rural food production hubs
Reviving and establishing rural villages
Creating functionally integrated and balanced urban settlements.
A key component and product to kick start the NDP Vision 2030.
Training the unskilled and unemployed to build for the destitute.
Creating skilled entrepreneurs in the construction sector.
Fighting poverty and unemployment through shelter and infrastructure development, eradicating mud schools with permanent structures.
Training and equipping inmates to enter the main stream economy.
To develop an entrepreneurial spirit at school level.

South Africa: 1994 – 2018
CRISIS:
14% CANNOT AFFORD TO BUY FOOD

9.4 MILLION UNEMPLOYED

3 MILLION HOUSING BACKLOG

Lets get South Africa (PTY) Ltd working.

Read more

Youth Employment and skills Development Program – Link

Social Innovation – Social Entrepreneur – Dr Peter Frumkin – Faculty Director of the Center for Social Impact Strategy – University of Pennsylvania – Link

Responsible Business Forum – UNDP – Sustainable Development Goals – Reduce Inequalities – Link

World Economic Forum – Future of Construction – World Bank: moladi operating in 24 countries Case Study

Reduce cost of Affordable Housing #BOP market – Link

How to get the unemployed working and the homeless sheltered – JOBS FOOD through SHELTER – Link

Finweek – The Builder of the Future – Link

Classrooms for the learners – Link

moladi model home in Trinidad – Link

Hennie Botes – TV Interview – Vision and Purpose – Link

Brick and Mortar vs. Injection Moulded Construction System – Link

Disrupting the construction industry with new technology –Link

Back to Basics

Create entrepreneurs that PRODUCE

Creating JOBS

Producing FOOD

Producing SHELTER

Producing TAXES

Circular Economy

Fourth Industrial Revolution | Housing Construction – Link

EmpowerPEOPLE to help themselves – Link 

Not for people, but with people. – Link 

Project Trinidad – Link

Gauteng Education Department – Link

Western Cape Education Department – Link

World Economic Forum – Future of Construction – World Bank – Link

Disrupting the construction industry with new technology –Link

For more information visit moladi – Link or watch the Video

Let’s create the PPP to get SA working!

Join the CHAMPION TEAM – moladi

Keywords: Lets get South Africa working, moladi, create jobs, employment, unemployment, homeless, housing, low cost housing, shelter, food, taxes, Circular Economy, back to basics, empower people, entrepreneurship, economy, skills development, Maslow, Hierarchy of needs, circular economy Create jobs economy employment empower people Entrepreneurship Food homeless housing Lets get South Africa working low cost housing moladi Skills development taxes unemployment

“To build or not to build?” – That is the question | moladi

“To build or not to build?” – That is the question | moladi

via “To build or not to build?” – That is the question | Forbes India Blog.

Here’s a dilemma: You are the owner of a construction company and to expand your market, you need to go into neighborhoods where clients can’t pay the typical construction costs; where there is a dearth of skilled labour and where it is nearly impossible to transport the materials typically associated with your conventional construction methods. You ask yourself: Why make the effort – is the ‘juice worth the squeeze?’

This was the situation faced by Moladi, a South African family-owned business. Sure, there was a demand for new construction – after all, affordable housing in low-income areas can provide a pivotal asset and source of stability that can pull a family out of poverty. In fact, many families were trying to build houses on their own, leading to sub-standard construction and often dangerous living conditions.

Moladi, however, was ready to rise to the challenge. They put a lot of ‘skin in the game’ from a technological innovation perspective, and in the process designed a new construction material to meet the constraints of the target market – a removable, reusable, recyclable, and lightweight plastic formwork mould, which when filled with aerated mortar, could form the wall structure of a house in as early as one day. Better yet, each set of Moladi formwork panels could be reused 50 times, without electricity, and by unskilled labourers.

This was a game-changer for Moladi as a company. The new formwork mould technology now makes up the majority of the company’s business, and is being exported to other markets such as Ghana, Sierra Leone and Nigeria. By taking an informed risk and creating an innovative new product, Moladi not only improved their company’s financial position, but also played a catalytic role in the lives of many families in poverty.

This is one of the many transformational stories on how companies unlock their potential by expanding their businesses in emerging markets. Like Moladi, they are looking beyond typical CSR efforts to understand how they can create a new business opportunity, by better understanding and meeting critical social needs.

And like Moladi, businesses which are successful in these efforts do so by being intentional in what they hope to achieve (for example, understanding the social constraints and how a strategy can address them) and support it with resources and leadership time commiserate with a significant new business strategy.

So the real question isn’t ‘to build or not to build?’ but rather ‘to innovate or not to innovate?’ We’re finding that game-changing companies have realised they can’t afford to not innovate with shared value strategies while approaching emerging markets.

Moladi is just one of thirty success stories we came across while conducting research for Shared Value in Emerging Markets, a white paper written in partnership with the Rockefeller Foundation to explore how multi-national corporations could play an increasingly valuable role in addressing social issues across emerging markets.

Like Rockefeller, FSG is committed to learning more about how companies can play a transformational role in reversing the downward social trends we are seeing in many communities. In fact, another joint effort with the Rockefeller Foundation (among others), the Shared Value Initiative, was featured last week as a Commitment to Action for the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) Annual Meeting.

This is only the beginning of the journey and we invite you to share your thoughts. If you have additional ideas on how shared value is being created in emerging markets, or pre-conditions for success, we’d love to hear them and incorporate them into the continuing dialogue.

By Patty Russell, FSG Director
(Patty is a part of FSG’s leadership group and leads the Catalytic Philanthropy approach area. She has over 12 years’ experience in advising corporations, private foundations, and non-profit organisations on strategy, programme design, evaluation, and operational improvement.)

Tags: emerging markets, FSG, innovation, Moladi, Rockefeller Foundation, shared value, plastic formwork, Back2Basic, Forbes India

Read more: http://forbesindia.com/blog/the-good-company/to-build-or-not-to-build-that-is-the-question/#ixzz29pD9DZqX