SINA (Social Innovation Academy) is a network of social enterprise incubators in Uganda and neighbouring countries with a mission of supporting marginalised young people to create their own solutions to social problems in their communities.There are currently more than 10 SINA communities which have catalysed 70+ social enterprises and more than 500 jobs. The goal is to create a global movement of 1,000 SINAs and 100,000 social enterprises by 2035.
Etienne Salborn, founder, and Tonny Wamboga, Operations Lead, talk to me about SINA’s model in which self-organisation plays a central role. How do scholars take on key roles? What is the ‘confusion stage’? What are common misconceptions of self-organisation? What are the specific cultural challenges of learning self-organisation in Uganda? We talk about these questions and more in our conversation.
Resources:
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SINA’s website: https://www.socialinnovationacademy.org/
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A case study about SINA (non-academic)
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An academic master thesis on the agency aspect of scholars in SINA
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Masters of Social Change, a SINA documentary about refugee activists and social entrepreneurs
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Etienne on the Out of the Clouds podcast talking about the SINA founding story and the model