Sub-Saharan Africa

J.P. Morgan is committed to building vibrant communities, preserving our environment and promoting an inclusive culture across the globe that benefits people not only today, but for generations to come.

Globally, J.P. Morgan, through the JPMorgan Chase Foundation, provides grants to charities in three areas of focus: Education, Community Development and Arts & Culture. We prioritize our funding efforts to focus on responding to the deepening social need in the communities we serve. Across Sub-Saharan Africa our commitments include:

• SME Catalyst Program
• University of Johannesburg
• Leadership, Effectiveness, Accountability & Professionalism (LEAP)
• Technoserve

SME Catalyst for Growth Program

In South Africa, the SME sector has the potential to positively affect the high level of unemployment and the relatively low economic growth rate in the country. J.P. Morgan has learnt that while access to finance is a challenge for SMEs in South Africa, there are several pools of capital currently targeting the sector. A more pressing challenge is the lack of management capacity and skills in the start up and early growth phases of an SME and it is this support that the SME Catalyst for Growth program is targeting.

The program will support two high quality Business Development Services (BDS) providers in South Africa, Raizcorp and Aurik, to help them increase their reach to urban SMEs in the Gauteng province. Through their product suite of BDS, Aurik and Raizcorp will work with ten businesses each and help the selected entrepreneurs achieve real growth for their businesses. The program, through its partnership with Dalberg, a strategy consulting firm specializing in international development, will also establish the platform for transparency and standardization in the quality of BDS provision.

University of Johannesburg

The Education Leadership Initiative is a collaboration between the University of Johannesburg Faculty of Education and Harvard Graduate School of Education. J.P. Morgan supported the expansion of this innovative program designed to raise professional standards of South African school principals, national and provincial education officials, and other education stakeholders. The goal of the partnership is to increase the capacity of South African school leaders to improve students’ achievements and opportunities. The program is a three year initiative and is the first of its kind in bringing about systemic change in the education sector in South Africa. The program has received immense support from a wide range of donors ranging from corporations to institutions such as the Development Bank of South Africa and the World Bank.

LEAP Africa

Leadership, Effectiveness, Accountability & Professionalism (LEAP) Africa is a non-profit organization committed to developing dynamic, innovative and principled African leaders. Since 2002, it has dedicated its efforts to working with visionary youth, business owners and social entrepreneurs.

A grant from J.P. Morgan will support life and employability skills training for 500 Nigerian youth through an Employability program. The life skills training enables the youth to gain control and mastery of their lives, while the employability training prepares them for the workplace, thereby enhancing their capability to secure and retain jobs. In addition, the program seeks to provide youth with work experience through internship, volunteer opportunities and access to jobs. It will also encourage enterprising youth to start their own businesses.

Technoserve

TechnoServe’s mission is to help entrepreneurial men and women in the developing world build businesses that create income, opportunity and economic growth.  It overcomes market failures by providing expert advice, technical and business capacity building, and by opening markets for entrepreneurs’ goods and services. J.P. Morgan is supporting Technoserve’s key program in the Nkomazi region in Mpumalanga province in South Africa – the Nkomazi Expanded Agribusiness Development Initiative (NEADi). The NEADi program is a continuation of work that TechnoServe has been doing in the Nkomazi District since 2007.

The initial grant from J.P. Morgan in 2008 was given to TechnoServe to support five entrepreneurial farming enterprises in the historically disadvantaged communities of the Nkomazi Municipality. The support assisted these businesses to create employment and develop agronomic and business skills. In 2011, funding from J.P. Morgan will support NEADi’s efforts to consolidate on learnings from the first phase of the program and apply them to ensure the businesses from Phase I are self sustainable. Technoserve also aims to apply the learnings to a wider pool of emerging farmers in the area, thereby creating a critical mass of sustainable farmers in Nkomazi.