EMCC Global Social Responsibility in Africa

ImpactB4Income

“Africa has all the human talents we need. What we lack is Coaches to help us unleash our potential.” When Kevin Ayeni, Co-Founder of the Nigeria based NGO ImpactB4Income, posted this on social media, a conversation started between him and Vimala Suppiah, (now former) Ambassador in Malaysia for EMCC Asia Pacific Region. In February 2020, Christina Demetriades, (now former) EMCC Cyprus President met up with Vimala during her travels in Malaysia. An inspiring conversation that lasted for many hours gave shape to a draft plan to respond to Kevin’s comment by launching the ‘ImpactB4Income Social Responsibility Project Africa’. By Summer 2020, EMCC Global published a Call for Volunteers to join the project.

The Coachees were the young members of NGO ImpactB4Income, who benefited in developing entrepreneurial and leadership skills. The project’s aim was to coach these young adults to acquire self-confidence, entrepreneurial spirit, and desirable leadership values with the hope that they would then be able to contribute to society at large and emerge as role models for Africa.

The coaching process was enhanced with psychometric personality assessments, sponsored by TalenX, which helped the Coaches gain a scientific insight into the Coachees at the start of the process. All the volunteer Coaches were EMCC-accredited and received context-specific Coaching Supervision, while all Coaching Supervisors received context-specific Supervision of Supervision, thus EMCC Global quality standards were upheld. TalenX also supported the final evaluation process and provided Coaches with evaluation reports based on their personal performance and the feedback of their Coachees.

The project brought together 30 professionals across 16 countries and 5 continents, to make coaching available pro bono to 16 socio-economically challenged young people in Nigeria, Africa amidst the covid19 pandemic. The diverse background of the volunteers attests the vibrant community spirit of EMCC Global. Christina and Vimala co-designed and co-led what was the first project of a global scale that was developed and executed under the EMCC Global Social Responsibility Workgroup (now Centre of Excellence), led by Ivan Yong.

By sharing the process, structure and findings of the ‘ImpactB4Income Social Responsibility Project Africa’, we celebrate the dedication, resilience and achievements of the young Nigerian Coachees who participated, as well as of our global volunteers. Our hope is to inspire and prompt colleagues to create and implement social responsibility projects or actions that will give access to the powerful methodology of coaching to people who would otherwise not have this ‘privilege’. Through this project, we stand for the Democratization of Coaching and how it can positively impact our crisis-ridden world.

You can read the Final Report of the project here: https://issuu.com/emccinternational/docs/emcc_sr_-_ib4i_africa_-_report_-_2021

If you have an idea for a Social Responsibility programme in your country then do get in touch with us and let us know more details.