Miller Center Fellowship
Document Type
Research Report
Publication Date
2016
Abstract
This report provides a Theory of Change Profile for Bana, a community-based, innovative social enterprise in Mpigi, Uganda. Bana manufactures affordable, biodegradable sanitary pads from banana psuedo-stems. It spreads awareness and education about the importance of menstrual health in rural Ugandan villages.
The title word of this report is inspired by the approach to social entrepreneurship presented by Roger L. Martin and Sally R. Osberg’s “Getting Beyond Better: How Social Entrepreneurship Works”. 2 Those authors describe how social entrepreneurs target social systems in a stable but unjust equilibrium – and then disrupt this to create a more just, humane, and compassionate world. This is what Bana does: it disrupts the unjust social conditions that hold back women’s health and agency. This report will present Bana as a disruptive social enterprise, and explain its theory of change through narratives of stakeholders and beneficiaries.
The founder and CEO of Bana, Richard Bbaale completed the Global Social Benefit Institute (GSBI) program in 2012, and has collaborated with Miller Center over the past five years. Bana has hosted three cohorts of Global Social Benefit Fellows to conduct participatory action research in 2014, 2015, and 2016. After the first two summers of research, the CEO and Miller Center staff discussed the need for a document that fully explains Bana’s theory of change. This document is a product of the 2016 participatory action research. For more information on the research methods, please see the note at the end of the document.
Recommended Citation
Egwim, Christina and Thomas, Déjà, "BanaPads Theory of Change Profile: How Bana Creates and Supports Networks for Women-Positive Sustainable Development in Rural East Africa" (2016). Miller Center Fellowship. 62.
https://scholarcommons.scu.edu/gsbf/62
Comments
https://www.millersocent.org/portfolio/bana/