What HR&S is, why Cecilia started HR&S (including ”the why” of HR&S) and her own story as an entrepreneur (both successes and setbacks).

How it came about

In her position as associate professor of chemistry at the Stockholm University of Technology, Cecilia ÖMAN came into contact with researchers from poor countries. She chose to work with research supervision at various universities and chemical laboratories in Africa. It became clear to Cecilia that traditional aid was not effective. Cecilia wanted to analyze the development assistance and develop an alternative plan, so in 2009 she started the voluntary organization Action10. Within Action10, she was able to gather her experiences, think them through and implement pilot projects. The alternative plan that Cecilia proposes is social entrepreneurship instead of grant-dependent organizations. The results were positive and the interest was great, so after six years Cecilia registered the company Human Righs & Science (HR&S). Within HR & S / Action10, she developed practical strategies and areas of activity and conducted training, local offices were started in six countries, five coaches in each country were appointed and guided, loans were distributed to ten entrepreneurs, data were collected from the studies and evaluated. In 2021, HR&S intends to expand its training operations and at the same time establish new customer contacts.

The motivation

– I started HR&S because I felt the pain of vulnerable people and felt obliged to do my best to contribute to a positive change. I am a scientific researcher by training so I started a social enterprise, as I believe that locally managed scientific research, innovation and  social enterprising is driving a healthy country and a positive development.

Managing my own enterprise is crucial also because it gives me the freedom I need to think freely, try new things, to be innovative, flexible and able to act fast on findings, it allows me to invest my work-hours, in doing what  I truly believe in.

I acknowledge that I am fortunate and am grateful for being a start-up entrepreneur in Sweden. My  country is very supportive, at all levels…  adminstration, access to support. The challenge for start-up entrpreneurs in Sweden is maybe the tax level, though I do appreciate the social security the Swedish taxes enables.

Concerning HR&S, I have made it my assignment to try to understand the mindset of vulnerable people. To put my self into the shoes of someone who is poor. If it was me, if I was living in a poor village or slum area, with my three kids that I love more than anything, who would I be, how would I think, what would I do? I have tried my best to interact closely, to live in and spend time with people in vulnerable settlements, to listen carefully, reflect and learn. I have also studies the scientific findings about diffrent cultures and how people’s mindset change when societies move from from farming to industry to knowledge based societies.

My stake is that, if it was me, I would know what to do, what I want, but I would be restricted by the lack of opportunities. HR&S aims to be an entitiy that link up with social entrepreneurs, innovators and scientific researchers in environments that lack opportunities and enables them to implement their ideas in their own communities.

From this platform of understanding, have I developed a set of practical strategies and implemented a package of activites.

The strategies include i) a set of core values, ii) means to ensure trust, iii) cross-cultural understanding, iv) evaluation planning, v) coaching programmes on-ground, and iv) assess evidence of impact. 

The imlemented activites are ; i) support centres with support staff, ii) investment fund, iii) coaching programme implementation and iv) real-time collection of monitoring data and assessment of  evidence for impact or no impact.

I have started my initiative in Sub-Sahara African countries, where the number of extremely poor is increasing every year.

I claim that HR&S is in the front-line of a change of paradigm, where we leave the concept of aid behind and become independent stakeholders working truthfully and trustfully together, cross cultures and for a common good.

The ”different user layers”, a user story and the everyday problems a certain user of her chosing faces, for example a social entrepreneur in Africa. 

– With a mandate like HR&S, we have to be close to several layers of users. We have:

1. The local customers of locally developed products and services,
2. The small and medium scale business owneres, we have
3. The scientific researchers, innovators and social entrepreneurs.

We are also working with:

4. A set of supporters; the auditors, the survey managers, the evaluation planning coaches, financial accounting coaches,  as well as the village chiefs, the heads of family and religious leaders. Netx level of users is:
5. The private sector who are interested in collaboration around enterprising in Africa,
6. The instiutions who aims for development or investment and also very importantly
7. Individuals who want Sub-Sahara African countries to grow; it can be leaders, philatropists, influencers, specialists, givers and others.

– A user story can be a social entrepreneur in a ghetto area, burning for helping her people, knowing exactly how, but failing because of lack of the key resources; infrastructure, information, partners, travelling and investment capital. She comes into contact with HR&S, partner up and guides HR&S in which way we can support. Together we agree on a win-win approach where we invest and benefit equally much.