Projects, activities and focus areas
Over the years, kiwanja.net has worked with a wide range of local, national and international social innovators, students, entrepreneurs and non-profit organisations, providing them with a wide range of short- and long-term advisory, support, consultancy and pro-bono services. We’ve also carried out our own internal writing, speaking and software development projects, some of which you’ll find below.
In May 2024, kiwanja.net relaunched with a new focus on coaching and mentoring social innovators and entrepreneurs. You can read more about this exciting new shift, and the services on offer, here.
Entrepreneur in Residence
In October 2015, CARE International announced the appointment of Ken Banks as their first ever Entrepreneur in Residence (EiR). Ken spent two years at CARE helping them make sense of the increasingly complex world of social innovation and technology-for-development. Further details on Ken’s role, and how EiR’s work, are available in an interview republished here.
Publishing
In November 2013 we self-published our first social innovation book examining the concept of accidental, reluctant innovation. Following the success of that book a publishing deal was signed in early 2015 with Kogan Page, one of the leading publishers in Europe. That second book, “Social Entrepreneurship and Innovation: International Case Studies and Practice”, was released in March 2016.
Software and app development
kiwanja.net makes good use of a wide range of skills picked up during an early career in information technology to design and build cause-centric tools for both non-profits and engaged citizens. The first of these, FrontlineSMS, is today one of the most widely used messaging platforms in the non-profit sector. We have also worked on a number of other in-house projects, details of which are available here.
Community resilience
From its roots in small-scale African development projects in the early 1990’s, kiwanja.net has always had a strong local community focus. Our Means of Exchange project looked at how emerging technologies could be used to democratise opportunities for economic self-sufficiency, rebuild local community and promote a return to local resource use, leading us to a better, fairer, more locally-connected world.
Thought leadership
With decades experience in the technology and international development sectors and a track record in the development of innovative tools, kiwanja.net is ideally-placed to help mentor and guide future social innovators and supporters in their work. Thought leadership is now a large part of what we do, helping the sector make best use of the technologies and opportunities available to all of us.
Advisory and Consultancy
In addition to running our own projects, kiwanja.net has a strong track record in providing consultancy and advisory services and over the years has worked with a number of international projects and organisations including UNEP, the GSM Association, Nike Foundation, PopTech, CARE and The Grameen Technology Centre. We stopped offering these services when we closed our doors in April 2018.
Side projects
Our operational model at kiwanja.net allows us to use income from paid work to subsidise in-house ideas and side projects. Over the past three years these have included a manifesto for global development, a charter for donors, a website about paying attention, and an app to help people save and share their memories.
Other
Ken Banks is a writer, speaker, moderator, compere and panelist who features regularly on the international conference circuit. Up until April 2018 he was available for hire as a professional communicator and keynote speaker. If you’d like to talk you can still reach him through the Contact page on this site.