[Music]
[Applause]
but if we have endless possibilities
with gender and equality the greatest
weapon for Africa while I realize and
believe this to be true I also know that
this question is not a question just for
Africa to answer but the world at large
and I say this bearing in mind that
according to the fortune 500 list we
have 26 CEOs that run the largest and
most powerful entities corporations
around the world 26 female CEOs then I
go on to the presidential and Prime
Minister podium and we only find
ourselves with a total of 22 females in
that field now what’s even more
remarkable is out of those 22 only true
on the continent of Africa I’m standing
here proudly today in a country that has
shown amazing progress by electing your
first female president let’s give a
round of applause for Marissa so here we
are having an honest conversation about
what gender inequality is about we hear
a lot about it it becomes a buzzword
like entrepreneurship to the point that
it silences the true nature of why it’s
brought to light in the first place I
want to put today a face to that gender
equality my name is philip hasta bandha
i’m a diaspora social entrepreneur with
an innovation hub in zimbabwe
I had an amazing life having had a
strong symbolic education and I have to
highlight that I was able to go to the
United States and not dab very well in
the field of math and science and
technology which is why at different
points in my life having started out in
a VA ssin as a pilot the industry
evolved and I was advised that it was
not wise for a foreigner to be in a
field where jobs were being laid off so
I adapted got a business degree and
moved on to telecommunications I worked
at that time for what we now call AT&T
which transitioned from SPC Wireless to
Cingular Wireless and to the name that
you know of today in my Turner there I
was in middle management at the age of
24 and I was running a production floor
in a call center with over 300 employees
most of whom were War veterans in the
thick of Texas let’s just say I’ve
walked out of there with a strong
handshake and a backbone so
transitioning from telecommunications it
was a turning point in my life and the
reason being that I came home to visit
and while I was on my vacation I was
getting emails and phone calls about my
work and that is the point I realized
that corporate America for in African
who likes to relax during the holiday
would not be a lifestyle that I would
like to live so I transitioned and moved
on into healthcare I became a
respiratory care practitioner
in this career I’ve spent the past 12
years of my life mostly being at the
bedside during critical conditions very
difficult situations where it’s usually
a matter of life and death using
equipment that is probably some of the
most expensive in most healthcare
facility
this walk allowed me to see a different
side of humanity at the point of death
people will share with you the only
person at the bedside what’s worth
living for
why do we exist on this earth why does
it matter
so having had 12 years of dealing with
end-of-life helping startup clinics
working with telemedicine and robotics
in one of the best healthcare systems in
the United States Kaiser Permanente
having this wonderful home and a
six-figure income I got to another
turning point in my life we have found
myself a single mother suddenly I
realized that while I had all these
amazing things
I had a priority which was to give my
son the best possible lifestyle for me
as a mother and for him to have a
purposeful life which meant I would
become a better mother for him now I
want to just take you back a little bit
to my childhood growing up
family of five and I’m the last child in
that family five siblings as the last
child I had the benefit of an
experienced mother who happened had to
have a background of teaching at some
point in her life so I was fortunate or
unfortunate in some ways to have someone
who was a hands-on mom meaning she was
involved in my homework she was present
and in the moment
so there was no getting away with
failure in academics but another piece
of her which was an important part of my
life throughout which she imparted was
this ability to allow an environment
that was creative in our home so when I
would come home with ideas about
creating this and creating that my
mother was the first to cheer on
in fact she would put up shows for me to
dance which trust me I’m not the
greatest dancer but nonetheless my
mother would be the first person to
cheer me on at the age of eight I found
myself in a predicament because I lost
my mother to cancer so suddenly from
growing up as African princess I became
literally homeless I ended up being
arranged by uncles and aunts and the
Guardian fund that my mother was so wise
to leave behind for our education
but the power of the African culture is
that everyone steps in everyone stepped
in at different points in my life
because my mom had been a single mother
so from her cousins from aunts to uncles
they stepped in to help me become a full
whole person so today as I speak to you
about social entrepreneurship and women
I truly speak from my heart because my
journey is not just about empowering
other women but a realization that as
women in order to empower others we must
ourselves be whole
at this point having had 12 years of
experience in healthcare
becoming a single mother I knew the only
place I could go was in Bob way back to
my roots back to my people because I
remembered that eight years old that
eight-year-old girl with the support
system that I had that allowed me to
grow as a whole person despite losing my
mother at a young age
so I went back to some hobby and
surprisingly my my father stepped up and
became the father I needed the most
became their amazing grandfather to my
son not only that my brothers my cousin
stepped in and suddenly I was healing
from my pain Wallen Zimbabwe I started
noticing the market I started going to
the marketplaces and realized there was
a lot of transactions happening there
were a lot of gaps on the market there
were a lot of challenges you see I
always go to Zimbabwe on holiday in the
past twelve twelve to fifteen years I
was going to some puppy but the
difference is that I was going as a
tourist this time I was home to stay and
all the problems confounded me it was
very natural for me to adapt into an
intrapreneur in 2013 I started
incubating my first company which was a
branding an advertising company some
young entrepreneurs came up to me and
said they wanted to start his company I
invested some capital of my own and
dating back today Dominion innovative
our first company that we incubated in
the Bob way now has these clients they
now come
eat on the marketplace with much larger
entities
that is when I became a social
entrepreneur
today my young CEO managing director and
the team at dominion innovative
are going around the world talking about
entrepreneurship because I seed it in
them to get started now let’s go back
these are my two young executives at
Dominion innovative creation let’s go
back to what does it mean to be a social
entrepreneur I want to engage
particularly the women in this crowd
gender equality social entrepreneurship
what does our only it means our brothers
and sisters supporting women women
supporting women corporate community
supporting women because women are the
original social entrepreneurs what do I
mean by that
women have been solving problems for
decades within their community
within their home when there’s no food
to eat
women devise a plan when there’s no
money for an education for their
children women figure it out
if we allowed more women to come into
spaces where they can learn more about
marketing about finance about legal
structures of entities who we can talk
to them about scaling but at the same
time talk to them about grief
about managing loss about domestic
violence about childcare parenting we
begin to have social entrepreneurs out
of these women that can scale because
they know the problems in their own
communities yet instead what is going on
around the world huge investments go in
to duplicate bodies that might have
worked in another part of the world but
are not right or a good fit for many
parts of Africa
I can’t even say today that my model in
Hawaii who work extremely well in
another part of the problem let alone
expect a model that’s been created in
Silicon Valley to work for some public
it is time to reach out to our
communities to the women within our
community to begin to solve problems to
begin to be nourished and to nourish in
return young entrepreneurs within their
community and I say this because while
young entrepreneurs come on board and
say they can solve problems it takes a
lot of skills it takes a lot of
discipline it takes a lot of knowledge
and what has happened particularly my
country is that we give sometimes those
young entrepreneurs a chance and
sometimes their expectations ought to
drive the latest Range Rover
so there’s a lot of wastage
what I know as a solution is to inject a
lot of assistance and support build
ecosystems around the women in our
societies
I can guarantee you you have a great
rate of return on your investments I
certainly can say that that amongst my
team and my partners I’m beginning to
see an amazing level of traction I’m
beginning to see the type of work that
gives me purpose allows me to wake up
every day knowing that at the end of my
life at that bedside I will know that I
did my part in this world from
supporting young bikers like Tanya
Melinda with her brand that has now gone
global and she’s now working to enhance
her career in Europe through some of
these initiatives such as diaspora
insight which is one of our platforms we
are able to engage the diaspora to
return home with skills to facilitate to
make their lives easier to come home for
a short period of time
and yet do a lot through virtual offices
through marketplaces we facilitate
because I’ve gone through the exact same
experiences that they’ve had
today we are training were incubating
companies but we’re also training young
people straight out of high school to
have the know how to navigate a
different different type of client
climate that we find ourselves in in
Zimbabwe but I do know for sure though
having lived in the United States for
over 18 years and seen change in
technology change in innovation after
innovation the some things that I found
a mentally correct in Zimbabwe which is
the education system it continues to
churn out amazing science and math
students so what I know for sure is if
the fundamentals are correct while their
challenges in the political arena and
the economy at the moment they a lot of
gaps in the market that means there are
lots of opportunities from entrepreneurs
there is lots of opportunities also for
diaspora entrepreneurs with skills with
an ability if there have an ability to
adapt they should be able to function in
a much much more difficult environment
such as the public however if you can do
it in Zimbabwe which is a very difficult
terrain any product in that comes out of
involve it can scale so much easier
environment
so today I want to awaken the giant
particularly in the women and say
whatever it is that you’re thinking
right now
whatever problems you see in your local
community
well that’s here in Mauritius Kenya
Nairobi Tanzania Zambia Lusaka awaken
that giant team up with others
collaborate find a space an ecosystem
hopefully be near Hobbs out there if not
let’s talk about expanding hubs in
Africa because I believe building
ecosystem building hubs around Africa is
a micro solution that can end up being a
big idea but we’ve got to start
somewhere and the journey does not start
by just continuously talking and
engaging but actually doing it so today
I’m proud as an African to stand in a
country that has exerted so much
attention to the rest of Africa by being
a financial district but also by being a
leader by investing in a female
president by electing in a female
president
but electing a female president which
means that motions are progressive and I
am excited to see what else is going to
come out of Mauritius already seeing El
Al see it’s it’s just an amazing
facility and it shows the progression
and the future we’re excited to be here
today but more importantly we’re excited
to take back to Zimbabwe in the u.s. all
the lessons learned and how we can all
collaborate it is possible it is
possible that women can be the true
weapon
for a great economy social economic
engagement in Africa but it has to start
somewhere and it has to start with
recognizing that our sisters our mothers
or cousins or aunts could possibly have
the solutions for the next big problem
thank you
[Applause]
[Applause]
but if we have endless possibilities
with gender and equality the greatest
weapon for Africa while I realize and
believe this to be true I also know that
this question is not a question just for
Africa to answer but the world at large
and I say this bearing in mind that
according to the fortune 500 list we
have 26 CEOs that run the largest and
most powerful entities corporations
around the world 26 female CEOs then I
go on to the presidential and Prime
Minister podium and we only find
ourselves with a total of 22 females in
that field now what’s even more
remarkable is out of those 22 only true
on the continent of Africa I’m standing
here proudly today in a country that has
shown amazing progress by electing your
first female president let’s give a
round of applause for Marissa so here we
are having an honest conversation about
what gender inequality is about we hear
a lot about it it becomes a buzzword
like entrepreneurship to the point that
it silences the true nature of why it’s
brought to light in the first place I
want to put today a face to that gender
equality my name is philip hasta bandha
i’m a diaspora social entrepreneur with
an innovation hub in zimbabwe
I had an amazing life having had a
strong symbolic education and I have to
highlight that I was able to go to the
United States and not dab very well in
the field of math and science and
technology which is why at different
points in my life having started out in
a VA ssin as a pilot the industry
evolved and I was advised that it was
not wise for a foreigner to be in a
field where jobs were being laid off so
I adapted got a business degree and
moved on to telecommunications I worked
at that time for what we now call AT&T
which transitioned from SPC Wireless to
Cingular Wireless and to the name that
you know of today in my Turner there I
was in middle management at the age of
24 and I was running a production floor
in a call center with over 300 employees
most of whom were War veterans in the
thick of Texas let’s just say I’ve
walked out of there with a strong
handshake and a backbone so
transitioning from telecommunications it
was a turning point in my life and the
reason being that I came home to visit
and while I was on my vacation I was
getting emails and phone calls about my
work and that is the point I realized
that corporate America for in African
who likes to relax during the holiday
would not be a lifestyle that I would
like to live so I transitioned and moved
on into healthcare I became a
respiratory care practitioner
in this career I’ve spent the past 12
years of my life mostly being at the
bedside during critical conditions very
difficult situations where it’s usually
a matter of life and death using
equipment that is probably some of the
most expensive in most healthcare
facility
this walk allowed me to see a different
side of humanity at the point of death
people will share with you the only
person at the bedside what’s worth
living for
why do we exist on this earth why does
it matter
so having had 12 years of dealing with
end-of-life helping startup clinics
working with telemedicine and robotics
in one of the best healthcare systems in
the United States Kaiser Permanente
having this wonderful home and a
six-figure income I got to another
turning point in my life we have found
myself a single mother suddenly I
realized that while I had all these
amazing things
I had a priority which was to give my
son the best possible lifestyle for me
as a mother and for him to have a
purposeful life which meant I would
become a better mother for him now I
want to just take you back a little bit
to my childhood growing up
family of five and I’m the last child in
that family five siblings as the last
child I had the benefit of an
experienced mother who happened had to
have a background of teaching at some
point in her life so I was fortunate or
unfortunate in some ways to have someone
who was a hands-on mom meaning she was
involved in my homework she was present
and in the moment
so there was no getting away with
failure in academics but another piece
of her which was an important part of my
life throughout which she imparted was
this ability to allow an environment
that was creative in our home so when I
would come home with ideas about
creating this and creating that my
mother was the first to cheer on
in fact she would put up shows for me to
dance which trust me I’m not the
greatest dancer but nonetheless my
mother would be the first person to
cheer me on at the age of eight I found
myself in a predicament because I lost
my mother to cancer so suddenly from
growing up as African princess I became
literally homeless I ended up being
arranged by uncles and aunts and the
Guardian fund that my mother was so wise
to leave behind for our education
but the power of the African culture is
that everyone steps in everyone stepped
in at different points in my life
because my mom had been a single mother
so from her cousins from aunts to uncles
they stepped in to help me become a full
whole person so today as I speak to you
about social entrepreneurship and women
I truly speak from my heart because my
journey is not just about empowering
other women but a realization that as
women in order to empower others we must
ourselves be whole
at this point having had 12 years of
experience in healthcare
becoming a single mother I knew the only
place I could go was in Bob way back to
my roots back to my people because I
remembered that eight years old that
eight-year-old girl with the support
system that I had that allowed me to
grow as a whole person despite losing my
mother at a young age
so I went back to some hobby and
surprisingly my my father stepped up and
became the father I needed the most
became their amazing grandfather to my
son not only that my brothers my cousin
stepped in and suddenly I was healing
from my pain Wallen Zimbabwe I started
noticing the market I started going to
the marketplaces and realized there was
a lot of transactions happening there
were a lot of gaps on the market there
were a lot of challenges you see I
always go to Zimbabwe on holiday in the
past twelve twelve to fifteen years I
was going to some puppy but the
difference is that I was going as a
tourist this time I was home to stay and
all the problems confounded me it was
very natural for me to adapt into an
intrapreneur in 2013 I started
incubating my first company which was a
branding an advertising company some
young entrepreneurs came up to me and
said they wanted to start his company I
invested some capital of my own and
dating back today Dominion innovative
our first company that we incubated in
the Bob way now has these clients they
now come
eat on the marketplace with much larger
entities
that is when I became a social
entrepreneur
today my young CEO managing director and
the team at dominion innovative
are going around the world talking about
entrepreneurship because I seed it in
them to get started now let’s go back
these are my two young executives at
Dominion innovative creation let’s go
back to what does it mean to be a social
entrepreneur I want to engage
particularly the women in this crowd
gender equality social entrepreneurship
what does our only it means our brothers
and sisters supporting women women
supporting women corporate community
supporting women because women are the
original social entrepreneurs what do I
mean by that
women have been solving problems for
decades within their community
within their home when there’s no food
to eat
women devise a plan when there’s no
money for an education for their
children women figure it out
if we allowed more women to come into
spaces where they can learn more about
marketing about finance about legal
structures of entities who we can talk
to them about scaling but at the same
time talk to them about grief
about managing loss about domestic
violence about childcare parenting we
begin to have social entrepreneurs out
of these women that can scale because
they know the problems in their own
communities yet instead what is going on
around the world huge investments go in
to duplicate bodies that might have
worked in another part of the world but
are not right or a good fit for many
parts of Africa
I can’t even say today that my model in
Hawaii who work extremely well in
another part of the problem let alone
expect a model that’s been created in
Silicon Valley to work for some public
it is time to reach out to our
communities to the women within our
community to begin to solve problems to
begin to be nourished and to nourish in
return young entrepreneurs within their
community and I say this because while
young entrepreneurs come on board and
say they can solve problems it takes a
lot of skills it takes a lot of
discipline it takes a lot of knowledge
and what has happened particularly my
country is that we give sometimes those
young entrepreneurs a chance and
sometimes their expectations ought to
drive the latest Range Rover
so there’s a lot of wastage
what I know as a solution is to inject a
lot of assistance and support build
ecosystems around the women in our
societies
I can guarantee you you have a great
rate of return on your investments I
certainly can say that that amongst my
team and my partners I’m beginning to
see an amazing level of traction I’m
beginning to see the type of work that
gives me purpose allows me to wake up
every day knowing that at the end of my
life at that bedside I will know that I
did my part in this world from
supporting young bikers like Tanya
Melinda with her brand that has now gone
global and she’s now working to enhance
her career in Europe through some of
these initiatives such as diaspora
insight which is one of our platforms we
are able to engage the diaspora to
return home with skills to facilitate to
make their lives easier to come home for
a short period of time
and yet do a lot through virtual offices
through marketplaces we facilitate
because I’ve gone through the exact same
experiences that they’ve had
today we are training were incubating
companies but we’re also training young
people straight out of high school to
have the know how to navigate a
different different type of client
climate that we find ourselves in in
Zimbabwe but I do know for sure though
having lived in the United States for
over 18 years and seen change in
technology change in innovation after
innovation the some things that I found
a mentally correct in Zimbabwe which is
the education system it continues to
churn out amazing science and math
students so what I know for sure is if
the fundamentals are correct while their
challenges in the political arena and
the economy at the moment they a lot of
gaps in the market that means there are
lots of opportunities from entrepreneurs
there is lots of opportunities also for
diaspora entrepreneurs with skills with
an ability if there have an ability to
adapt they should be able to function in
a much much more difficult environment
such as the public however if you can do
it in Zimbabwe which is a very difficult
terrain any product in that comes out of
involve it can scale so much easier
environment
so today I want to awaken the giant
particularly in the women and say
whatever it is that you’re thinking
right now
whatever problems you see in your local
community
well that’s here in Mauritius Kenya
Nairobi Tanzania Zambia Lusaka awaken
that giant team up with others
collaborate find a space an ecosystem
hopefully be near Hobbs out there if not
let’s talk about expanding hubs in
Africa because I believe building
ecosystem building hubs around Africa is
a micro solution that can end up being a
big idea but we’ve got to start
somewhere and the journey does not start
by just continuously talking and
engaging but actually doing it so today
I’m proud as an African to stand in a
country that has exerted so much
attention to the rest of Africa by being
a financial district but also by being a
leader by investing in a female
president by electing in a female
president
but electing a female president which
means that motions are progressive and I
am excited to see what else is going to
come out of Mauritius already seeing El
Al see it’s it’s just an amazing
facility and it shows the progression
and the future we’re excited to be here
today but more importantly we’re excited
to take back to Zimbabwe in the u.s. all
the lessons learned and how we can all
collaborate it is possible it is
possible that women can be the true
weapon
for a great economy social economic
engagement in Africa but it has to start
somewhere and it has to start with
recognizing that our sisters our mothers
or cousins or aunts could possibly have
the solutions for the next big problem
thank you
[Applause]
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