SMART 2024-2025
SMART 2024-2025 Projects
Jobs not Charity, Rwanda
ROBEEC is a newly founded social enterprise that has gained international recognition for its sustainable production model. Following requests by the Rwanda and Belgium government to inform a market-led apiculture development approach for cooperatives, the company needs assistance in developing an impact evaluation tool/s that will allow them to assess the social, economic, and environmental impact of their model and inform policy.
Baker to FoodTech Startup Mogul, Rwanda
Regis Umugiraneza credits the CARL Group’s ability to weather various business development challenges including the Covid-19 pandemic to his strong entrepreneurial spirit. Having recently acquired a new business facility equipped with numerous food processing and production equipment, assistance is needed in conducting a feasibility study that will inform the envisioned incubation center for young and upcoming entrepreneurs within the food and beverage industry in Kigali.
Healthy People, Planet and Profits, Senegal
Increased use of fertilizers contributes to the growth of invasive submerged aquatic vegetation, which obstructs water access points and provides a habitat for Schistosoma (world’s second most common parasitic disease caused by snail-transmitted flatworms). This project seeks to develop a viable business model that small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) can use to transform the public nuisance of submerged aquatic vegetation into valuable private goods, such as compost and livestock feed.
The Rise, Fall and Resurrection of the Dew Drop Inn, USA
Once known as the South’s “swankiest spot,” the Dew Drop Inn is one of the most culturally significant venues in the United States that served as an incubator for rock ‘n’ roll in the 1950s and 60s. Despite its representation of the entrepreneurial spirit of Black business owners during the Jim Crow segregation era, little is known about this culturally and historically significant site. SMART aims to assist by conducting extensive research to develop various marketing and mixed media assets that will support various publications as well as a documentary film.
Growing Black Farmer Share of the South African Beef Sector, South Africa
South Africa is the leading beef producer in Africa, producing a fifth (21%) of the meat on the continent. However, most of the meat produced and sold is done by predominately white commercial farmers. A multi-disciplinary team of researchers from the African Centre for Food Security (UKZN) and SMART (Cornell) are supporting the development of a baseline study that will inform the development of the National Agricultural Marketing Council (NAMC) Theory of Change (TOC) and logic model aimed at promoting black smallholder farmer participation.
The Future of SMEs: A Global South Dialogue, USA
With the goal of hosting a global dialogue in Indonesia in 2025, a major effort is needed to organize the participation of SMEs. SMART fellows will be tasked with researching and writing a report—based on Zoom interviews with selected SMEs, meetings with experts working in multilateral organizations, and a workshop to be held in Washington DC to identify best practices in enabling SME environments, strategies and innovations that promote resilient enterprises.