Ashoka is the global association of the world’s leading social entrepreneurs—men and women with system changing solutions for the world’s most urgent social problems. Since 1981, Ashoka has elected over 2,000 leading social entrepreneurs as Ashoka Fellows, providing them with living stipends, professional support, and access to a global network of peers in more than 60 countries.

Ashoka launched its Africa program in 1990, and today there are approximately 300 Ashoka Fellows in 17 African countries.  On a continent consistently challenged by poverty, disease, poor governance, and war, Ashoka Fellows in Africa are empowering people to create their own economic and civic opportunities, addressing the pandemic of HIV/AIDS and other health concerns, introducing effective education systems and learning tools, protecting their environments and natural resources, and resolving conflict. Building a critical mass of leading social entrepreneurs with groundbreaking ideas is an important step toward taking back ownership of our continent and creating a vibrant, prosperous African continent.

Ashoka Southern Africa began electing South African leading social entrepreneurs into our expansive network in 1990, and to date the Southern African Fellowship is more 120 members strong spanning Botswana, Mozambique, South Africa, Zimbabwe and Zambia.