Entrepreneur’s Rwandan Start-Up Gets HBS Support
SCHARPF: Seeking cost-effective raw materials in Rwanda.
Photo by Hannah Brice
Elizabeth Scharpf (MBA ’07) is on a roll. Determined to put her MBA skills to work addressing socioeconomic and public health problems in developing nations, she has launched a social enterprise organization, Sustainable Health Enterprises (SHE), and its first business, a Rwandan start-up that employs sixty women to manufacture and distribute low-cost sanitary pads.
In recognition of her achievements, Scharpf in March was named the first HBS Social Entrepreneurship Fellow and received a $25,000 grant to help fund her Rwandan venture. Last year, Echoing Green, which invests in social entrepreneurs, chose SHE as one of the most innovative social change organizations worldwide, providing it with seed money and technical support.
It has been a fast-paced two years since graduation, but Scharpf feels like she’s just getting started. “I remember writing essays for admission to HBS and talking a lot about leadership and impact,” she recalls. “I can’t think of a better way to be a leader and have impact than what I am doing now.”
Scharpf created SHE in the fall of 2007 to serve as a platform for market-based approaches, rather than charity, to improving the well-being of communities in the developing world. SHE’s first spin-off venture addresses the widespread phenomenon of girls and women missing school or work when they are menstruating because they lack access to affordable sanitary pads. Up to five million African girls miss school each year for this reason, estimates UNICEF. “Our goal is to turn what has been an obstacle into a business opportunity and vehicle for economic growth in Africa, Asia, and Central America,” says Scharpf. The Rwandan venture will manufacture and market pads for 30 percent less than currently available brands and use locally sourced materials. The female workers ultimately will become owners of the business through microfinance loans.
“Lack of access to pads affects not only the prospects of girls and women, it also has significant macroeconomic consequences,” adds Scharpf. “In fact, we estimate a $115 million loss in GDP a year in Rwanda alone.” SHE picked Rwanda as its first business site because it is one of the fastest-growing economies in Africa.
The organization already has global reach. Scharpf recently hopped from New York to San Francisco to Kigali seeking financial support. And the Rwanda-based staff traveled to India to procure machinery to make sanitary pads. Meanwhile, a team at North Carolina State University has developed the fiber process for the filling of the pads, and the Rwanda Workforce Development Authority has collaborated in training future employees.
“It is an honor to be Harvard Business School’s first Social Entrepreneurship Fellow,” Scharpf says. “These resources will help SHE succeed during this critical phase of our pilot rollout.”
The Social Enterprise Fellowship will be given annually to a recent HBS graduate to support the pursuit of new social ventures. “The MBA curriculum provides students with a variety of learning opportunities that prepare them for roles in social enterprise,” says HBS professor Bill Sahlman, a faculty cochair of the new program. “Now, with the fellowship, HBS can continue to provide support to entrepreneurial MBAs in pursuit of their social ventures.”
Going forward, the deadline for applications will be in mid-June, and the fellowship announcement will be made by the end of August.
To learn more about the fellowship, visit www.hbs.edu/socialenterprise/careers/socialentrepreneurship/.
