South African social impact centre the Bertha Centre for Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the University of Cape Town Graduate School of Business (GSB) has been profiled as one of five university-based social impact centres leading the way in social impact education globally.

This is according to a new report by nonprofit organisation Bridgespan Group which includes a broad landscape scan of more than 60 programmes within business schools and across universities worldwide.

The Bertha Centre was established in 2011 – by comparison, Harvard’s Social Enterprise Initiative is 20 years old – and is the only centre in an emerging economy to be featured in the report.

Bertha Centre director Dr François Bonnici says there has been rapid growth in social impact initiatives at business schools within the last decade.

“The report points out that ten years ago, merely establishing such a centre was a distinctive act of leadership. But now, it’s viewed as table stakes. Today, almost 50% of the top 50 business schools in the world host a social impact programme, initiative, or centre,” he says. 

The GSB is benchmarked alongside business school heavyweights including the Center for the Advancement of Social Entrepreneurship at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business; the Social Enterprise Initiative at Harvard Business School; the Center for Social Innovation at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business, and the Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship at the University of Oxford’s Saïd Business School.

“We are the first academic centre of its kind in Africa and our centre was established in partnership with the Bertha Foundation, a family foundation that works with inspiring leaders who are catalysts for social and economic change and human rights,” says Bonnici.

The centre’s goal is to achieve social justice and impact through teaching, research, events and actionable projects.

It has infused social impact into the core of the business school curriculum based on the conviction that future leaders need to create economic, social and environmental value for an inclusive, sustainable country and continent.

Bonnici adds that the centre has received significant support from the more established centres around the world and has been able to learn from them.

Bertha Foundation COO Laura Horwitz highlights that her foundation believes in the power of people organising to shift systems.

“That is why we invested in the Bertha Centre and others organising for progressive social change which is geared towards overcoming extreme global inequality. We are proud that their achievements have been recognised in this new report,” she said.

The report also analyses four promising future directions and opportunities identified by practitioners and experts in the social impact field including educating and preparing a broader range of student talent for social impact work across the social and private sectors.

GSB director Associate Professor Mills Soko also agrees that business schools in Africa need to prioritise to this end.

“Not only do we have an important role to play in training business leaders and entrepreneurs who are properly equipped to build successful and profitable businesses that also move society forward, but we can also use our position, research skills and convening power to influence policy and practices to tackle pressing social problems,” he said.