As I walked in I was offered a desk and made to feel at home. I was at DARE space - the co-working, workshop and event space of MCISE - and having run late for my meeting with @adnane, I got a chance to do some work of my own as he finished off other meetings so we could finally meet! It was an apt intro to MCISE and its work - the Moroccan Centre for Innovation and Social Entrepreneurship - where access is open, people are welcomed and ideas flow.
So there I was in the midst of my work amongst the bustle of DARE, and Hind the young women who heads up MCISE’s communications and I got into a dialogue about what we were each doing. A natural opening and I was being introduced to the MCISE’s vast array of work. Follow that up with a solid and passionate meeting with @adnane (Adnane Addioui, MCISE’s co-founder and president), and there’s some exciting prospects for collaboration that are emerging. As a starting frame, the social innovations and entreprises emerging from MCISE span agriculture (30-40%), access to energy/ energy consumption, access to education/ teaching methodologies, access and quality of health including training, food business/ inclusive farming and production.
I’m going to summarise what I got on their relevant programs, and highlight where I see potential opportunity in terms of partnership and alliance.
DARE space:
an accessible co-working, workshop and event space open to anyone and host of a wide variety of events spanning innovation, science, art and more.
_Here I see an opportunity for sharing events and live-streaming to expand the reach of Edgeryders’ knowledge sharing and MCISE community’s access. For example, hosting an event at DARE space in real-time with an Edgeryders’ Academy webinar (as discussed with @nadia @matteo_uguzzoni @hugi and @owen in our last call).
DARE inc:
the flagship program of MCISE from what I understand, it’s “a three-track program [over 4months] that aims to support social entrepreneurs from the moment they decide to tackle a social issue until they incite systemic change by means of a viable startup. The program is designed to respond to the specific needs of each startup at each stage of their development.” They’ve supported 150 start-ups with 27 funded to prototype/ “accelerate.”
_Here I see two specific and connected opportunities at this stage: _
1. expanding DARE Inc (and MCISE’s other activities) to the Edgeryders platform to sustain the network after first contact, continue the conversations, support P2P knowledge sharing and offer access to the global experience and expertise of Edgeryders’ network.
2. foster a pathway through Dare Inc into the OpenVillage dense network towards autonomous co-living/ co-working spaces for these program’s “graduates” to establish themselves autonomously, yet supported by the network’s knowledge and resource sharing. Note here MCISE’s strong partnership network.
Wuluj / the Alliance:
This is a crowdfunding platform developed in partnership with happysmala.
Here I see an opportunity to explore the Alliance in its true vision, as we are also in conversations with happysmala as per this post. Whether it’s specifically about Wuluj or another project, there is a powerful opportunity to expand potential collaboration beyond B2B partnership into a constellation of allied SMEs/ not-for-profits to leverage our programs to scale and impact. Ping @ericasmar, perhaps worthwhile having a group call with @adnane about this in the near future. I’ll do a separate post shortly around the the medium-term vision of the Alliance and ping you, but let me know what you think about a call to discuss collaboration across.
Tamkeen:
Not directly relevant right now I wanted to mention Tamkeen because of how it shows MCISE’s experience in scaling and impact. Tamkeen is an awareness initiative targeted at high school students to promote and build capacities in social innovation and social entrepreneurship. It’s reached 500 students across 36 districts so far, and includes a regional competition followed by the national level.
Enactus Morocco:
@adnane also heads up Enactus Morocco (and happens to be an Ashoka Fellow) 
Enactus Morocco program is focused on mobilising networks of university students in social innovation projects, prizes and pilots on the ground. Interested in reinventing public education it reaches 10,000/year.
As with DARE Inc I see opportunity here in outreach for the OpenVillage and offering these students access to the Edgeryders’ and OpenVillage networks.
Next steps
@adnane and I were clear that the alignment is strong and partnership worthwhile. We came up with an initial idea as to how to move forward and I think it’s a great second case after FRIDA for evolving the Alliance partnership framework.
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Clear on offer and needs
Let’s start by getting clear on what we can offer and what we need. For example, @adnane was very clear that he sees a lack in MCISE that could be met by Edgeryders through our expertise network, scaling opportunities, access to global markets and resources. And it’s clear to me that MCISE’s processes for onboarding and guiding young people in the local Moroccan context, as well as their dynamic network of young social innovators, social entrepreneurs, community and international partners meets our needs in scaling. -
Mapping the landscape
Getting clear on where our programs are going, partnerships are forming, and importantly for MCISE, what kind of experts can their community have access to. -
Three concrete areas to collaborate around
As with any collaboration, let’s be concrete. I’ve highlighted above opportunities I see. Curious as to what @nadia and you @adnane think of those places to start with. Immediate concrete opportunity is a webinar live streamed to DARE space towards the end of May/ early June.
This is a seed for a longer conversation and activities! I do think another call will be useful soon, and collating a document with our specific needs/ offers. For now, I’d love to hear the collective’s thoughts and let’s see what takes hold here. Particularly interested in what you think @zmorda @hazem and @matthias? 
Long overdue ha!