Phoenix Africa and Enterprise Development
As a point of principle, Phoenix Africa is committed to building our portfolio of businesses along enterprise development lines:
making development into a business, thus making it sustainable and scalable.
Sustainable because it means freedom from aid budgets and the vagaries of development politics: profitability ensures that our
businesses will be operating, and thus having a development impact, decades from now.
Scalable because profits allow for ongoing growth of the business, meaning an expanding impact footprint. More customers
means more economic development.
Post-Conflict Focus
Despite the tremendous challenges of operating in post-war
countries, we believe this niche to be a valuable one, for two
principal reasons:
•
It provides the biggest opportunity for a development
impact: where the need is most severe, every dollar
invested naturally has the biggest development return.
•
The post-conflict niche also provides numerous good
business opportunities. For understandable reasons,
most investors are not drawn to countries in recovery
from periods of war; however, if the risks are properly
managed, it is possible to do good business in these
areas.
Through combining the enterprise development approach and
the post-conflict focus, Phoenix Africa is seeking to create a
business which will achieve double-bottom-line returns and
contribute to a stable and prosperous Africa in the decades
ahead.
Our Manifesto
Phoenix Africa businesses are being established according to our Manifesto, which informs everything we do:
MANIFESTO
Phoenix Africa believes:
•
That the current aid-focused approach to development is insufficiently effective and that this is not tolerable: global
economic inequities are not only morally unacceptable but also politically dangerous.
•
That post-conflict and post-emergency countries are woefully neglected by the international commercial sector despite
offering a clear and very exciting business opportunity.
•
That development must be about promoting individual agency: as a matter of justice and respect, people in developing
countries must be treated as active participants in creating their own futures, not passive recipients of aid.
•
That development will only be sustainable where it is profitable; our enterprise development business model, combining
development with profitability, will ensure a lasting impact.
Phoenix Africa will:
•
Commit dynamically to building sustainable development businesses in post-conflict and post-emergency countries in
Africa.
•
Commit to empowering our customers with the means of improving their own lives: promotion of individual action is
mutually beneficial.
•
Generate, develop and share expertise for effective commercial operation in post-conflict countries.
•
Cooperate with all partners – commercial, academic, government, NGOs – who share our goals of sustainable
development.
Our Manifesto
Phoenix Africa businesses are being established according to our Manifesto, which informs everything we do:
MANIFESTO
Phoenix Africa believes:
•
That the current aid-focused approach to development is insufficiently effective and that this is not tolerable: global
economic inequities are not only morally unacceptable but also politically dangerous.
•
That post-conflict and post-emergency countries are woefully neglected by the international commercial sector despite
offering a clear and very exciting business opportunity.
•
That development must be about promoting individual agency: as a matter of justice and respect, people in developing
countries must be treated as active participants in creating their own futures, not passive recipients of aid.
•
That development will only be sustainable where it is profitable; our enterprise development business model, combining
development with profitability, will ensure a lasting impact.
Phoenix Africa will:
•
Commit dynamically to building sustainable development businesses in post-conflict and post-emergency countries in
Africa.
•
Commit to empowering our customers with the means of improving their own lives: promotion of individual action is
mutually beneficial.
•
Generate, develop and share expertise for effective commercial operation in post-conflict countries.
•
Cooperate with all partners – commercial, academic, government, NGOs – who share our goals of sustainable
development.