What’s new: At UPS, we’re committed to advancing equity and inclusion and that’s why we’re joining forces with Ashoka, a global network of over 4,000 social entrepreneurs. The partnership will concentrate on two groups: 15 young social entrepreneurs in an accelerator program and 80 women changemakers across Nigeria, South Africa, Egypt, and Morocco to impact 160,000 beneficiaries.
What we’re doing:
- To get started, we will gather 15 social equity leaders from across Africa in Lagos, Nigeria from January 15-18, where they will participate in an accelerator program aiming to spark collaborations as well as get support for their growing businesses.
- January 19, a group of women social entrepreneurs will attend the Pan-African Women’s Town Hall, hosted by the Women’s Initiative for Social Entrepreneurship (WISE).
- UPS experts will engage, mentor and empower the leaders involved throughout the year.
- The UPS Foundation allocated more than US$170,000 to support initiatives directly involving communities in the region to drive real, positive and impactful change.
Why it matters: We believe entrepreneurship is key to driving innovation, unlocking prosperity and creating equity, which is why we offer programs like the Women Exporters Program and the Green Exporters Program, and why we’re now helping to empower the next generation of African entrepreneurs and community leaders.
Dive deeper: The UPS Foundation is investing in organizations that address systemic education barriers and creating economic opportunities, as well as health and humanitarian solutions, for underserved & underrepresented women, youth, and marginalized communities. Recent examples include: