Thank you for participating in this collaborative competition. We value the time and effort you’ve put forth and we would like to offer you feedback and some thought provoking questions from our Evaluation Team.
The idea adapting sports apparel for women in Muslim societies is interesting and positively addresses the changing nature of a traditional demographic. However, the model itself needs further refinement in terms of enabling women to build social enterprises on their own, developing partnerships, and diversifying sources of funding.
Please use this input as both potential insights into your innovations, as well as constructive ideas for how to improve or grow your organization.
It is a great initiative from you & your team,If you are able make those culturally appropriate dresses for women,it would help in changing mindset of people especially muslims and will definitely help remove barriers of muslim women who would be able to play sports and also help in empowerment of women.Also Indian players like Sania Mirsa wolud be encouraged to play without any fear of riddicule from muslim extremists in any part of the World.
It is a great initiative from you & your team,If you are able make those culturally appropriate dresses for women,it would help in changing mindset of people especially muslims and will definitely help remove barriers of muslim women who would be able to play sports and also help in empowerment of women.Also Indian players like Sania Mirsa wolud be encouraged to play without any fear of riddicule from muslim extremists in any part of the World.
Dear Annie
Thanks for sharing your project on Changemakers. Jasper and Astrid both bring up excellent points. For me it is important to show community leaders and people responsible for sport that girls want to participqte in sport when they are given the chance and the right circumstance to do so. Too often girls are ignored in sport programming and the argument is given that girls do not want to play anyway: If providing clothing allows girls to take part we should do it just to rob the ignorant around us of their belief that girls are not interested in sport: once these people see girls playing and understand girls joy in movement and fun we can begin to create arguments about changing the clothing restrictions
Heather Cameron
Free University Berlin
University Challenge
I have mixed feelings about this project. On the one hand, the more girls and women are allowed to practice the sport of their choice the better. If making available a certain garb helps achieve that goal, that´s a good thing. On the other hand, I read about women´s right groups from muslim communities that are lobbying against having to wear a veil, a headscarf, a burkha, because they view them and politically inforced gender specific clothing in general as suppressive. Your term "culturally appropriate" draws my attention here - couldn´t one also view laws in muslim countries that force women into a certain attire and behavior as a politcial rather than a cultural issue, or rather, a cultural norm that is invoked for political purposes? We have been talking about theory of change around many of the sport projects here recently, and I guess this is a point on which to debate a very different theory of that kind. Does one rather opt for giving in to the framework some states set for their female citizens, if that helps them to have more of share in public space and be more active, even if that means that this framework remains untouched? Or does one reject dressing codes one finds unfair and suppressive, even if that comes down to closing down opportunities for women?
I would be interested in hearing how the women themselves you met thought about this. Did you have a chance to discuss some of these questions with them? I know that this challlenge is drawing to an end, but it would be great if you could find the time to let me know what you think here.
I would also like to point you to a German project on women´s soccer, which visited Iran recently and played the national women´s soccer team there. There is a now a documentary film out on them and this trip that might also touch upon related questions:
http://www.changemakers.net/en-us/node/4192
Best,
Jasper Nicolaisen
Free University Berlin
University Challenge
Jasper,
Thank your for your thoughtful comments and questions. I am from Turkey (living in Netherlands currently) and this is exactly the point that Turkey's politics has become a mess for last 12 months. The conflict is very tense and there is a big clash between conservative part of the community and too narrowly secular constitution (Maria, if you think being not able to enter gyms with headscraf is outrageous, listen to that: in Turkey girls with headscrafs can not go to universities - neither public or private)
Jasper, back to your question about lobbying against having to wear a veil is a tricky one. Do I like women -voluntaryly or mandatoryly- wearing veil or headscraf? Absolutely NOT. However my experience in Turkey proves that if advocay against the paradigm is not born from the own dynamics of the community and comes from outside, it does nothing but strengthens the paradigm.
So my bottom line is: if women need culturally appropriate sportswear, if this is the barrier, we should help initiatives creating access to sports by providing the right uniforms for women. At the same time, if women want to participate in sports but they are denied because their clothing is not appropriate according to politics or culture, we should be on their side and advocating for their right to participate in sports with whatever uniforms they want. Those 2 things might sound conflicting but they are not. In both cases we advocate against the barrier between sports and women.
I agree very much with you, we should ask those women how they think and feel in each case
The comments and passion this entry has created are fantastic and I think it is great that people speak out and are part of this debate. This project is a very innovative and courageous effort to bring apparel to women and girls living in cultural context where without it they either will not want to, or will not be allowed to, participate in sports. I agree we need more dialogue around this issue, but it needs to be a rights-based dialogue. All women and girls around the world should have the RIGHT to participate in sports.
This is far from the reality in our world today. Many communities do not let women and girls be part of public life, much less play sports. And yet, sports is an incredible social change tool. Through sports girls can learn leadership skills and raise their self-esteem, while at the same time discover the fun, support and power of being together. Sport provides a social network that women often lack. It’s by joining a team, learning to lose, win, achieve under pressure, be loud and excel, that girls and women can be the future leaders of tomorrow. I deeply believe this and think that if there is a company/foundation/individual/or anyone else willing to put their time, talent and money to overcome one of the many cultural hurdles that keep girls and women away from sports, they should be applauded.
The issue is that in many parts of the world, without a headscarf, and loose clothing that does not suffocate you, many girls/women will not be part of public life. Let’s get girls all over the world playing sports today and participating in public life so that can have an opportunity to become empowered and supported women who are able to make their own choices, and give their own lives the direction and meaning they want.
MB
This project has no political statement attached nor is it a commercial venture – it is simply about addressing one of the many barriers to women participating in sports – lack of appropriate apparel. It doesn’t have ANYTHING to do with Nike directly.
If women in The Netherlands are not allowed to be in gyms because they cover their heads – that is absolutely outrageous and something needs to be done about it NOW that is blatant discrimination and those clubs should be named and shamed. Access to the benefits of sports must be a right for everyone.
MB
This project has no political statement attached nor is it a commercial venture – it is simply about addressing one of the many barriers to women participating in sports – lack of appropriate apparel. It doesn’t have ANYTHING to do with Nike directly.
If women in The Netherlands are not allowed to be in gyms because they cover their heads – that is absolutely outrageous and something needs to be done about it NOW that is blatant discrimination and those clubs should be named and shamed. Access to the benefits of sports must be a right for everyone.
The issue of Islam has been a very hot issue in The Netherlands for the past 4 or 5 years now. And i get the feeling that because of the vast negativity that has been put on the Muslim society as a whole (in the whole world), Nike wants to target to us as the refugees in Kenya. Maybe what i am saying now is not fair, but i feel as if this "new Muslim clothing line" is another marketing tactic to increase sales (the ones that would be launched in the developed countries). As if Nike is our friend. Protecting us "poor" Muslims by going against the rest of the world who is scared of us. Kind of like trying to win the popularity of the Muslims (another target group) to boost sales.
Can you understand what i mean?
My point is, it will be very tricky, to launch this new clothing line in The Netherlands. Nike will definitely receive very mixed reactions from the Muslims living in the developed countries. And it will be very challenging for Nike to get the green card in this country to allow women to wear veils while they are doing their sports when at this very moment they are not allowed to join in a fitness center because only their hair is covered.
I just wanted to share my feelings with you regarding the matter. And no, in no way am i anti-Nike. But i am sceptical, not because i think Nike is doing a wrong thing, on the contrary, but i wonder how sincere they are with their actions. I personally think that Nike needs to research further into the dutch market, create a dialogue with ALL its stakeholders and let that be a pilot first before introducing the clothing line.
Hi Mihriban,
Thank you so much for your feedback, it is really helpful to have alternative points of view. I work with Annie and am also a fan of this project because I dont think that clothing should ever be a barrier to participating in sport. I also think that there is a barrier to participation among many Muslim women because the opportunities to compete while maintaining a commitment to religious customs are few in many countries, even the U.S. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/15/AR2008011503356.html
I dont think Annie's view was that Nike would commercialize this, but that we have this intellectual property (in the form of the pattern designs) and she is looking for a community partner/s who may have an interest in taking these designs, sourcing material from local providers and then they can make the uniforms that could be distributed to women as a way of encouraging participation in sport, or at least making it more comfortable for them to do so while maintaining modest dress. Also, it could be an income generating project in developing countries at least.
That said, even if Nike were to bring this to market (which is not the current vision ), I am not sure that is a bad thing if the result is that it would get a lot more women excited about playing sport in countries where it is not customary outside gyms. A great example is in Iran (where my family is from) - Faiza Rafsanjani created the Islamic Women's Games precisely for this reason - to provide women with an opportunity to compete at olympic levels behind closed doors because they wear clothing oriented toward performance which is not appropriate for viewing by males in that culture.
Lots of interesting food for thought. I am not sure what Nike's role should be here in terms of advocacy within Netherlands, but my personal point of view is that women should have access to sport no matter what is on their head!
Best,
Ziba
My name is Mihriban Palas, and I am one of Gail Whiteman's students from the Erasmus University Rotterdam. When Gail forwarded me the information regarding "designers on a mission" i had very mixed feelings. What Nike along with UNHCR has done for the people at the refugee camp in Kenya is in one word wonderful. Sports is a very important part of life, it helps a person to relax, reconnect with oneself, gives more energy and attaches a person more to life. So its wonderful to read and to know that Nike is providing something so wonderful especially to people who are in need of the small things in life that will make them happy again and find the energy to reconnect with life (even if it is for that 1 or 2%).
However, this being said, as a Muslim woman i think that Nike will definitely receive very mixed reactions from the Muslims and the rest of the population living in The Netherlands.
The Netherlands always promotes itself as a very progressive country, a country where everyone can do what they want, say what they want, wear what they want, eat what they want and so forth. So due to this, one could easily say that it is a country who pays great attention to the human rights of its people. Great country? Is it really??
Did you know that Muslim women are not allowed to join certain fitness centers because they wear head scarfs on her head (please note: not a veil but just a head scarf). Did you know that a big part of the Dutch population have a "Islam Phobia". Did you know that a leading dutch politician (Geert Wilders) is bringing out a movie, in it, explaining why the Islam is so bad and how it suppresses women, how it encourages people to become terrorists.
This is The Netherlands from the eyes of Muslim women, Muslim men and children.
What a great project! And as I see you have enough support to work this project out too something great.
If you´re interested in "hands" to realize the plans for this project we could possibly help. Students of our institute are active in executing projects for a better world in for example Ghana and Kenia. They are doing this because of their own believes and not for gaining some points for their study. Off course we stimulate and support (sponsor) these initiatives. The beautiful thing is that these students not only plan these projects but also execute these projects.
So if you want to make it happen, we would love to cooperate. This great project asks for a roll out and not to end in a cabinet.
Kind regards,
Ruben Erkelens
Fontys University of Applied Science
TILBURG
The Netherlands
I love this idea! What a fantastic example of social intrapreneurship! I agree with Maria, we need to be less concerned with where the ideas come from and focus on the problems they are solving. True, many social entrepreneurs and NGOs face challenges around financing and awards like this are helpful in boosting their profiles. But, so too for social intrapreneurs. These individuals are competing for resources within their own organizations and often don't receive the support they need because their ideas are seen as crazy, too long-term or outside the bounds of the current business model. Recognition for these creative and courageous people inside big companies is most welcome!
Best of luck with your initiative!
Maggie Brenneke
SustainAbility
Director, Skoll Programme on Social Entrepreneurship
what a great initiative! i really like both the idea and the fact that you, as part of a large mulitinational, are working hard at such a grassroots idea that may have global reach. I am also hugely in favour of facilitating sports among women and i think you tap into a really important yet overlooked issue among Muslim women and girls. I agree that this concept has appeal, not just in developing countries but also in developed countries with significant Muslim populations -- the Netherlands, where you and i both live and work, is clearly a nice local pilot. If you are looking for interns to help you out, our business school at RSM has many Muslim female students in the business program. Just let me know and i'll post the internship opportunity!
Good luck!
Gail
Dr Gail Whiteman
Associate Professor
Rotterdam School of Management
Erasmus University
Would love one of your student brains on this - so let talk! I want to think global application. So first how do we take the ''package'' that I have and make it available in different media - hard copy and digital. Many organisations have limited access to digital means. Second we need a brain on how to ''mobilise'' around this - how do we let people know where it is and how to access it. Third - how do we create a structure that can support the livelihood creation piece.
The beauty of social innovation in the new world of open source that is happening here in this competition is that there should be NO barriers to entry – and I mean none – zero - zip, including being an employee of the company who sponsors the competition. The prize money is minimal $5000 USD and does not go to the individual but to creating a sustainable way to moving the best ideas forward. AND the point is to get great ideas populated on the site so they can be taken to scale. It’s all about social innovation and mobilizing tribes, and harnessing the brilliance of crowds in the sport for a better world space NOT about winning the competition.
The BEST solutions to barriers will without doubt happen in the space between the sectors NOT in one particular sector. The point of this competition is to mobilize folks to vote for the programs they believe can have the most lasting and sustainable impact on an issue they care about. Those of us who deeply care about a huge barrier for women being appropriate sports apparel are thrilled to see an idea like this have the opportunity to get global exposure. … to be sustainable, no doubt this project needs to be a part of a cross-sector partnership. So, let’s brainstorm!
In the new world order – open source and expanding the boundaries of engagement are true north as doing good cannot be the privileged of the academics and NGO’s. The solutions need to come from all sectors. What a shame if Annie and other brilliant Nike employees were excluded from posting entries because they happen to work for the company who sponsors the competition! the judging process has to be above that type of bias - and it is!
The process of competitive collaboration is at its best when it is not framed in limitations, but in possibilities. Let the best ideas win and multiply!
the intention of my comment was only in the particular event of winning the reward. I never said social innovation should not be open to everyone.
I think however that is something to consider that the 'minimal 5000 dollars' reward can mean a lot for some projects, probably not for others. So the fact that there is a reward is also a motivation for some organizations to enter this competition, and we need to accept that. Our organization didn't enter the competition for the reward, but to share our ideas and learn about others. I think is a good forum to debate between all the players in where we should give our point of views from our particular perspective. Social work has many players today, big NGO, small-executing NGO, companies, governments, universities, etc. It would be great if we can listen to each other needs and experiences and learn from them. I don't think that some of those actors just 'deciding' what is good to do and what is not, without knowing all the local issues, is the right way of improving.
You talked about some concepts that are very deep, like social innovation, mobilizing tribes, take projects to scale. All these things are the ones we should be debating about. I think that this competition should work as a inspiration to all people in the world to take action in wherever field they feel close to, but to do something. Im sure we agree that a deep change in the world is inlaid in everyone, and we should try to do that. Giving rewards is a clear message, an example to follow on those winning it. I could be wrong, but it would also be a shame if I couldn't not make a legitime comment about my concerns.
I think your initiative is nice and useful and Im glad that NIKE is doing it.
Which I don't understand is the reason why NIKE as a company is competing for a reward when they are not a charity organization, but a huge multinational with enough resources to finance this thing.
More surprising even to see that NIKE sponsor this event, meaning giving money and that could go back to them???
Anyway, good luck with your initiative, I just think is a pitty to not give the possibility to many fantastic, small and growing projects that do need the reward to keep on improving.
You are so very right. If this project were to be voted in as one of the 3 prizewinners, we would absolutely not take the money (and I would hope it could go to one of the ''small and growing'' projects you mention), since it is not about the money.
Right now, for whatever reason, right or wrong, the ''package'' that we created after Designers on a Mission sits in a filing cabinet in my office. The package captures the key intellectual capital from the project and I want Nike to share it. I am simply trying to find a way to set it free (from my filing cabinet) to address one of the key barriers that muslim women and girls face may face in participating in sports. Regardless of winning prizes (which is not the issue - its not about me or Nike) what I am really hoping via this process is to find someone who can professionalise the package (it is pretty basic at the moment) so that we can just send it out (ideally for free) to sporting muslim women and their communities.
Are you the person to do that or do you know someone that is? Let me know!
Hi Mario,
Thanks for your feedback. As you will see from my profile, I am part of the social innovation/CR team at Nike, so I thought I might be able to add a bit of history (as well as offer my own perspective on Annie's entry and success in reaching the final round. But first, I wanted to also clarify that Mark Parker - our CEO and also a judge on the competition - recused himself from the deliberation around this entry, so the fact that Annie made it this far was a vote a confidence from the other judges. Okay, so process aside, I hear what you are saying about the prize money and it is probably true that someone from Nike probably needs the funds less than some of the more cash strapped NGOs, so perhaps this is something for us to think about, but I do think that the recognition is important because even those of us that see ourselves as social "intrapreneurs" working from within the bounds of a company need visibility to mobilize support to push this type of work forward.
Part of the rationale that our team had in opening this competition to Nike employees (and to be honest, I hope next year many more will enter) is because it is a way to get social issues more deeply embedded within our company. If more Nike employees start thinking about how to integrate social considerations into their work, we could transform the business model of our entire company, not to mention perhaps mobilize the millions of individuals who purchase our products.
But your comments definitely gives us food for thought. Perhaps next time we set aside a slot for a Nike employee finalists and retain 3 winner slots for the rest of the community, but we would want to retain full access to the dialogue and competitive process to ensure that the best idea wins!
running out of words so will continue in another post....
Ziba
So, my final comment is that I would love your thoughts (and those of other members of the "changemaker community") because we are truly committed to the principles of transparency and open-source solutions - which is what the changemakers platform! So, let us know and we will continue the dialogue and I am sure come up with a better solution together.
Thanks so much for your submission to Changemakers. It is a novel concept – its core strategy is granting easier access to sports apparel, which is a key barrier to participation in sports in many Arab countries for women. We are encouraged by your strong passion for the concept and good understanding and discussion of your target audience’s needs.
As a new social entrepreneur, it often helps clarify your purpose when you walk though the exercise of building a theory of change and logic model. If you are interested, we just recently posted a general piece on the contest criteria – innovation, scale, and impact – that might be helpful to you. (see http://www.changemakers.net/en-us/node/729#comment-2686.) As we discussed your model, you could even take the model to the next level and allow woman to create their own social enterprises to commercially produce the apparel within their communities. This would give you incremental social outcomes – including independence and financial security. There are quite a few examples of this being done in the Arab countries.
You might also want to consider looking into partnerships that will reduce the costs (i.e. you mentioned that material was expensive) for the women as well as help you find the women who would be interested in “investing” in this social enterprise. You then could just develop low-cost kits – the pattern, the how-to on starting a local social enterprise, and start-up material – to give out to these organizations.
If you have specific questions on this posting, please don’t hesitate to reach out.
Sincerely,
Paul Bloom
Senior Research Scholar of Social Entrepreneurship and Marketing
Center for the Advancement of Social Entrepreneurship
Duke University – Fuqua School of Business
Suzanne Steffens
CASE Scholar
MBA Student, Class of 2008
Duke University – Fuqua School of Business
These are all great ideas and thanks. My real challenge is having the time to actually follow up and BE a social entrepreneur... do you have any students at Duke who might be passionat enoug to help?
I absolutely think the model should include a way for women to build their own enterprises so we could develop a broader package of advice (not just the patterns and how to) about how to build a business... it would be difficult to do that in Dadaab where we started this but Dadaab is extreme circumstances but not in many other parts of the world. Key to that would be targetting women in communities where we know there is sports for muslim women going on... they need to have a market to be successful.
These are all great ideas and thanks. My real challenge is having the time to actually follow up and BE a social entrepreneur... do you have any students at Duke who might be passionat enoug to help?
I absolutely think the model should include a way for women to build their own enterprises so we could develop a broader package of advice (not just the patterns and how to) about how to build a business... it would be difficult to do that in Dadaab where we started this but Dadaab is extreme circumstances but not in many other parts of the world. Key to that would be targetting women in communities where we know there is sports for muslim women going on... they need to have a market to be successful.
I also believe this is a fantastic initiative which we can still learn from and also we can strengthen. I definetely think there is a room for our manfacturing partners to be a part of this modal. We just need to find more effective ways of reaching them and sharing our initiatives.
Hi Annie,
As you know, I am a huge fan of this initiative. It strikes me that this could be adapted or adopted by many of the other projects serving women living in communities where physical modesty may pose a constraint to their participation in sport. I also think there is an opportunity to strengthen this model so that their is a more sustained contribution of raw materials to accompany the newly acquired skills of pattern making/ sewing/ and uniform creation so that this can provide more than just an opportunity to play in comfortable attire, but also sustainable livelihoods? Can you comment on whether you think there would be an opportunity to involve Nike's manufacturing partners or others to donate materials on a more sustained basis? Also, I wonder if there is a way to scale the "skills transfer" through instructional videos and downloadable patterns?
Thanks!
Z
Dear Annie:
Thank you for participating in this collaborative competition. We value the time and effort you’ve put forth and we would like to offer you feedback and some thought provoking questions from our Evaluation Team.
The idea adapting sports apparel for women in Muslim societies is interesting and positively addresses the changing nature of a traditional demographic. However, the model itself needs further refinement in terms of enabling women to build social enterprises on their own, developing partnerships, and diversifying sources of funding.
Please use this input as both potential insights into your innovations, as well as constructive ideas for how to improve or grow your organization.
Warm regards,
The Changemakers Team
Dear Annie,
It is a great initiative from you & your team,If you are able make those culturally appropriate dresses for women,it would help in changing mindset of people especially muslims and will definitely help remove barriers of muslim women who would be able to play sports and also help in empowerment of women.Also Indian players like Sania Mirsa wolud be encouraged to play without any fear of riddicule from muslim extremists in any part of the World.
Cheers to You & Nike for making the innovation!!
Pooja
Dear Annie,
It is a great initiative from you & your team,If you are able make those culturally appropriate dresses for women,it would help in changing mindset of people especially muslims and will definitely help remove barriers of muslim women who would be able to play sports and also help in empowerment of women.Also Indian players like Sania Mirsa wolud be encouraged to play without any fear of riddicule from muslim extremists in any part of the World.
Cheers to You & Nike for making the innovation!!
Pooja
Dear Annie
Thanks for sharing your project on Changemakers. Jasper and Astrid both bring up excellent points. For me it is important to show community leaders and people responsible for sport that girls want to participqte in sport when they are given the chance and the right circumstance to do so. Too often girls are ignored in sport programming and the argument is given that girls do not want to play anyway: If providing clothing allows girls to take part we should do it just to rob the ignorant around us of their belief that girls are not interested in sport: once these people see girls playing and understand girls joy in movement and fun we can begin to create arguments about changing the clothing restrictions
Heather Cameron
Free University Berlin
University Challenge
Hi Annie,
I have mixed feelings about this project. On the one hand, the more girls and women are allowed to practice the sport of their choice the better. If making available a certain garb helps achieve that goal, that´s a good thing. On the other hand, I read about women´s right groups from muslim communities that are lobbying against having to wear a veil, a headscarf, a burkha, because they view them and politically inforced gender specific clothing in general as suppressive. Your term "culturally appropriate" draws my attention here - couldn´t one also view laws in muslim countries that force women into a certain attire and behavior as a politcial rather than a cultural issue, or rather, a cultural norm that is invoked for political purposes? We have been talking about theory of change around many of the sport projects here recently, and I guess this is a point on which to debate a very different theory of that kind. Does one rather opt for giving in to the framework some states set for their female citizens, if that helps them to have more of share in public space and be more active, even if that means that this framework remains untouched? Or does one reject dressing codes one finds unfair and suppressive, even if that comes down to closing down opportunities for women?
I would be interested in hearing how the women themselves you met thought about this. Did you have a chance to discuss some of these questions with them? I know that this challlenge is drawing to an end, but it would be great if you could find the time to let me know what you think here.
I would also like to point you to a German project on women´s soccer, which visited Iran recently and played the national women´s soccer team there. There is a now a documentary film out on them and this trip that might also touch upon related questions:
http://www.changemakers.net/en-us/node/4192
Best,
Jasper Nicolaisen
Free University Berlin
University Challenge
Jasper,
Thank your for your thoughtful comments and questions. I am from Turkey (living in Netherlands currently) and this is exactly the point that Turkey's politics has become a mess for last 12 months. The conflict is very tense and there is a big clash between conservative part of the community and too narrowly secular constitution (Maria, if you think being not able to enter gyms with headscraf is outrageous, listen to that: in Turkey girls with headscrafs can not go to universities - neither public or private)
Jasper, back to your question about lobbying against having to wear a veil is a tricky one. Do I like women -voluntaryly or mandatoryly- wearing veil or headscraf? Absolutely NOT. However my experience in Turkey proves that if advocay against the paradigm is not born from the own dynamics of the community and comes from outside, it does nothing but strengthens the paradigm.
So my bottom line is: if women need culturally appropriate sportswear, if this is the barrier, we should help initiatives creating access to sports by providing the right uniforms for women. At the same time, if women want to participate in sports but they are denied because their clothing is not appropriate according to politics or culture, we should be on their side and advocating for their right to participate in sports with whatever uniforms they want. Those 2 things might sound conflicting but they are not. In both cases we advocate against the barrier between sports and women.
I agree very much with you, we should ask those women how they think and feel in each case
Best,
Aykan Gulten
Nike CR
The comments and passion this entry has created are fantastic and I think it is great that people speak out and are part of this debate. This project is a very innovative and courageous effort to bring apparel to women and girls living in cultural context where without it they either will not want to, or will not be allowed to, participate in sports. I agree we need more dialogue around this issue, but it needs to be a rights-based dialogue. All women and girls around the world should have the RIGHT to participate in sports.
This is far from the reality in our world today. Many communities do not let women and girls be part of public life, much less play sports. And yet, sports is an incredible social change tool. Through sports girls can learn leadership skills and raise their self-esteem, while at the same time discover the fun, support and power of being together. Sport provides a social network that women often lack. It’s by joining a team, learning to lose, win, achieve under pressure, be loud and excel, that girls and women can be the future leaders of tomorrow. I deeply believe this and think that if there is a company/foundation/individual/or anyone else willing to put their time, talent and money to overcome one of the many cultural hurdles that keep girls and women away from sports, they should be applauded.
The issue is that in many parts of the world, without a headscarf, and loose clothing that does not suffocate you, many girls/women will not be part of public life. Let’s get girls all over the world playing sports today and participating in public life so that can have an opportunity to become empowered and supported women who are able to make their own choices, and give their own lives the direction and meaning they want.
Astrid Aafjes
Women Win
www.womenwin.org
MB
This project has no political statement attached nor is it a commercial venture – it is simply about addressing one of the many barriers to women participating in sports – lack of appropriate apparel. It doesn’t have ANYTHING to do with Nike directly.
If women in The Netherlands are not allowed to be in gyms because they cover their heads – that is absolutely outrageous and something needs to be done about it NOW that is blatant discrimination and those clubs should be named and shamed. Access to the benefits of sports must be a right for everyone.
MB
This project has no political statement attached nor is it a commercial venture – it is simply about addressing one of the many barriers to women participating in sports – lack of appropriate apparel. It doesn’t have ANYTHING to do with Nike directly.
If women in The Netherlands are not allowed to be in gyms because they cover their heads – that is absolutely outrageous and something needs to be done about it NOW that is blatant discrimination and those clubs should be named and shamed. Access to the benefits of sports must be a right for everyone.
Due to word limitations i continue here...
The issue of Islam has been a very hot issue in The Netherlands for the past 4 or 5 years now. And i get the feeling that because of the vast negativity that has been put on the Muslim society as a whole (in the whole world), Nike wants to target to us as the refugees in Kenya. Maybe what i am saying now is not fair, but i feel as if this "new Muslim clothing line" is another marketing tactic to increase sales (the ones that would be launched in the developed countries). As if Nike is our friend. Protecting us "poor" Muslims by going against the rest of the world who is scared of us. Kind of like trying to win the popularity of the Muslims (another target group) to boost sales.
Can you understand what i mean?
My point is, it will be very tricky, to launch this new clothing line in The Netherlands. Nike will definitely receive very mixed reactions from the Muslims living in the developed countries. And it will be very challenging for Nike to get the green card in this country to allow women to wear veils while they are doing their sports when at this very moment they are not allowed to join in a fitness center because only their hair is covered.
I just wanted to share my feelings with you regarding the matter. And no, in no way am i anti-Nike. But i am sceptical, not because i think Nike is doing a wrong thing, on the contrary, but i wonder how sincere they are with their actions. I personally think that Nike needs to research further into the dutch market, create a dialogue with ALL its stakeholders and let that be a pilot first before introducing the clothing line.
I thank you for your attention.
Hi Mihriban,
Thank you so much for your feedback, it is really helpful to have alternative points of view. I work with Annie and am also a fan of this project because I dont think that clothing should ever be a barrier to participating in sport. I also think that there is a barrier to participation among many Muslim women because the opportunities to compete while maintaining a commitment to religious customs are few in many countries, even the U.S. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/15/AR2008011503356.html
I dont think Annie's view was that Nike would commercialize this, but that we have this intellectual property (in the form of the pattern designs) and she is looking for a community partner/s who may have an interest in taking these designs, sourcing material from local providers and then they can make the uniforms that could be distributed to women as a way of encouraging participation in sport, or at least making it more comfortable for them to do so while maintaining modest dress. Also, it could be an income generating project in developing countries at least.
That said, even if Nike were to bring this to market (which is not the current vision ), I am not sure that is a bad thing if the result is that it would get a lot more women excited about playing sport in countries where it is not customary outside gyms. A great example is in Iran (where my family is from) - Faiza Rafsanjani created the Islamic Women's Games precisely for this reason - to provide women with an opportunity to compete at olympic levels behind closed doors because they wear clothing oriented toward performance which is not appropriate for viewing by males in that culture.
Lots of interesting food for thought. I am not sure what Nike's role should be here in terms of advocacy within Netherlands, but my personal point of view is that women should have access to sport no matter what is on their head!
Best,
Ziba
Dear Annie Francis,
My name is Mihriban Palas, and I am one of Gail Whiteman's students from the Erasmus University Rotterdam. When Gail forwarded me the information regarding "designers on a mission" i had very mixed feelings. What Nike along with UNHCR has done for the people at the refugee camp in Kenya is in one word wonderful. Sports is a very important part of life, it helps a person to relax, reconnect with oneself, gives more energy and attaches a person more to life. So its wonderful to read and to know that Nike is providing something so wonderful especially to people who are in need of the small things in life that will make them happy again and find the energy to reconnect with life (even if it is for that 1 or 2%).
However, this being said, as a Muslim woman i think that Nike will definitely receive very mixed reactions from the Muslims and the rest of the population living in The Netherlands.
The Netherlands always promotes itself as a very progressive country, a country where everyone can do what they want, say what they want, wear what they want, eat what they want and so forth. So due to this, one could easily say that it is a country who pays great attention to the human rights of its people. Great country? Is it really??
Did you know that Muslim women are not allowed to join certain fitness centers because they wear head scarfs on her head (please note: not a veil but just a head scarf). Did you know that a big part of the Dutch population have a "Islam Phobia". Did you know that a leading dutch politician (Geert Wilders) is bringing out a movie, in it, explaining why the Islam is so bad and how it suppresses women, how it encourages people to become terrorists.
This is The Netherlands from the eyes of Muslim women, Muslim men and children.
Dear Annie,
What a great project! And as I see you have enough support to work this project out too something great.
If you´re interested in "hands" to realize the plans for this project we could possibly help. Students of our institute are active in executing projects for a better world in for example Ghana and Kenia. They are doing this because of their own believes and not for gaining some points for their study. Off course we stimulate and support (sponsor) these initiatives. The beautiful thing is that these students not only plan these projects but also execute these projects.
So if you want to make it happen, we would love to cooperate. This great project asks for a roll out and not to end in a cabinet.
Kind regards,
Ruben Erkelens
Fontys University of Applied Science
TILBURG
The Netherlands
I love this idea! What a fantastic example of social intrapreneurship! I agree with Maria, we need to be less concerned with where the ideas come from and focus on the problems they are solving. True, many social entrepreneurs and NGOs face challenges around financing and awards like this are helpful in boosting their profiles. But, so too for social intrapreneurs. These individuals are competing for resources within their own organizations and often don't receive the support they need because their ideas are seen as crazy, too long-term or outside the bounds of the current business model. Recognition for these creative and courageous people inside big companies is most welcome!
Best of luck with your initiative!
Maggie Brenneke
SustainAbility
Director, Skoll Programme on Social Entrepreneurship
dear Annie,
what a great initiative! i really like both the idea and the fact that you, as part of a large mulitinational, are working hard at such a grassroots idea that may have global reach. I am also hugely in favour of facilitating sports among women and i think you tap into a really important yet overlooked issue among Muslim women and girls. I agree that this concept has appeal, not just in developing countries but also in developed countries with significant Muslim populations -- the Netherlands, where you and i both live and work, is clearly a nice local pilot. If you are looking for interns to help you out, our business school at RSM has many Muslim female students in the business program. Just let me know and i'll post the internship opportunity!
Good luck!
Gail
Dr Gail Whiteman
Associate Professor
Rotterdam School of Management
Erasmus University
Hi Gail
Would love one of your student brains on this - so let talk! I want to think global application. So first how do we take the ''package'' that I have and make it available in different media - hard copy and digital. Many organisations have limited access to digital means. Second we need a brain on how to ''mobilise'' around this - how do we let people know where it is and how to access it. Third - how do we create a structure that can support the livelihood creation piece.
The beauty of social innovation in the new world of open source that is happening here in this competition is that there should be NO barriers to entry – and I mean none – zero - zip, including being an employee of the company who sponsors the competition. The prize money is minimal $5000 USD and does not go to the individual but to creating a sustainable way to moving the best ideas forward. AND the point is to get great ideas populated on the site so they can be taken to scale. It’s all about social innovation and mobilizing tribes, and harnessing the brilliance of crowds in the sport for a better world space NOT about winning the competition.
The BEST solutions to barriers will without doubt happen in the space between the sectors NOT in one particular sector. The point of this competition is to mobilize folks to vote for the programs they believe can have the most lasting and sustainable impact on an issue they care about. Those of us who deeply care about a huge barrier for women being appropriate sports apparel are thrilled to see an idea like this have the opportunity to get global exposure. … to be sustainable, no doubt this project needs to be a part of a cross-sector partnership. So, let’s brainstorm!
In the new world order – open source and expanding the boundaries of engagement are true north as doing good cannot be the privileged of the academics and NGO’s. The solutions need to come from all sectors. What a shame if Annie and other brilliant Nike employees were excluded from posting entries because they happen to work for the company who sponsors the competition! the judging process has to be above that type of bias - and it is!
The process of competitive collaboration is at its best when it is not framed in limitations, but in possibilities. Let the best ideas win and multiply!
MB
Hi MB,
the intention of my comment was only in the particular event of winning the reward. I never said social innovation should not be open to everyone.
I think however that is something to consider that the 'minimal 5000 dollars' reward can mean a lot for some projects, probably not for others. So the fact that there is a reward is also a motivation for some organizations to enter this competition, and we need to accept that. Our organization didn't enter the competition for the reward, but to share our ideas and learn about others. I think is a good forum to debate between all the players in where we should give our point of views from our particular perspective. Social work has many players today, big NGO, small-executing NGO, companies, governments, universities, etc. It would be great if we can listen to each other needs and experiences and learn from them. I don't think that some of those actors just 'deciding' what is good to do and what is not, without knowing all the local issues, is the right way of improving.
You talked about some concepts that are very deep, like social innovation, mobilizing tribes, take projects to scale. All these things are the ones we should be debating about. I think that this competition should work as a inspiration to all people in the world to take action in wherever field they feel close to, but to do something. Im sure we agree that a deep change in the world is inlaid in everyone, and we should try to do that. Giving rewards is a clear message, an example to follow on those winning it. I could be wrong, but it would also be a shame if I couldn't not make a legitime comment about my concerns.
Cheers
Mario
Hi Annie
I think your initiative is nice and useful and Im glad that NIKE is doing it.
Which I don't understand is the reason why NIKE as a company is competing for a reward when they are not a charity organization, but a huge multinational with enough resources to finance this thing.
More surprising even to see that NIKE sponsor this event, meaning giving money and that could go back to them???
Anyway, good luck with your initiative, I just think is a pitty to not give the possibility to many fantastic, small and growing projects that do need the reward to keep on improving.
cheers
Mario
Mario
You are so very right. If this project were to be voted in as one of the 3 prizewinners, we would absolutely not take the money (and I would hope it could go to one of the ''small and growing'' projects you mention), since it is not about the money.
Right now, for whatever reason, right or wrong, the ''package'' that we created after Designers on a Mission sits in a filing cabinet in my office. The package captures the key intellectual capital from the project and I want Nike to share it. I am simply trying to find a way to set it free (from my filing cabinet) to address one of the key barriers that muslim women and girls face may face in participating in sports. Regardless of winning prizes (which is not the issue - its not about me or Nike) what I am really hoping via this process is to find someone who can professionalise the package (it is pretty basic at the moment) so that we can just send it out (ideally for free) to sporting muslim women and their communities.
Are you the person to do that or do you know someone that is? Let me know!
Annie
Hi Mario,
Thanks for your feedback. As you will see from my profile, I am part of the social innovation/CR team at Nike, so I thought I might be able to add a bit of history (as well as offer my own perspective on Annie's entry and success in reaching the final round. But first, I wanted to also clarify that Mark Parker - our CEO and also a judge on the competition - recused himself from the deliberation around this entry, so the fact that Annie made it this far was a vote a confidence from the other judges. Okay, so process aside, I hear what you are saying about the prize money and it is probably true that someone from Nike probably needs the funds less than some of the more cash strapped NGOs, so perhaps this is something for us to think about, but I do think that the recognition is important because even those of us that see ourselves as social "intrapreneurs" working from within the bounds of a company need visibility to mobilize support to push this type of work forward.
Part of the rationale that our team had in opening this competition to Nike employees (and to be honest, I hope next year many more will enter) is because it is a way to get social issues more deeply embedded within our company. If more Nike employees start thinking about how to integrate social considerations into their work, we could transform the business model of our entire company, not to mention perhaps mobilize the millions of individuals who purchase our products.
But your comments definitely gives us food for thought. Perhaps next time we set aside a slot for a Nike employee finalists and retain 3 winner slots for the rest of the community, but we would want to retain full access to the dialogue and competitive process to ensure that the best idea wins!
running out of words so will continue in another post....
Ziba
So, my final comment is that I would love your thoughts (and those of other members of the "changemaker community") because we are truly committed to the principles of transparency and open-source solutions - which is what the changemakers platform! So, let us know and we will continue the dialogue and I am sure come up with a better solution together.
Cheers,
Ziba
Dear Annie,
Thanks so much for your submission to Changemakers. It is a novel concept – its core strategy is granting easier access to sports apparel, which is a key barrier to participation in sports in many Arab countries for women. We are encouraged by your strong passion for the concept and good understanding and discussion of your target audience’s needs.
As a new social entrepreneur, it often helps clarify your purpose when you walk though the exercise of building a theory of change and logic model. If you are interested, we just recently posted a general piece on the contest criteria – innovation, scale, and impact – that might be helpful to you. (see http://www.changemakers.net/en-us/node/729#comment-2686.) As we discussed your model, you could even take the model to the next level and allow woman to create their own social enterprises to commercially produce the apparel within their communities. This would give you incremental social outcomes – including independence and financial security. There are quite a few examples of this being done in the Arab countries.
You might also want to consider looking into partnerships that will reduce the costs (i.e. you mentioned that material was expensive) for the women as well as help you find the women who would be interested in “investing” in this social enterprise. You then could just develop low-cost kits – the pattern, the how-to on starting a local social enterprise, and start-up material – to give out to these organizations.
If you have specific questions on this posting, please don’t hesitate to reach out.
Sincerely,
Paul Bloom
Senior Research Scholar of Social Entrepreneurship and Marketing
Center for the Advancement of Social Entrepreneurship
Duke University – Fuqua School of Business
Suzanne Steffens
CASE Scholar
MBA Student, Class of 2008
Duke University – Fuqua School of Business
Duke University's Fuqua School of Business
HI Suzanne and Paul
These are all great ideas and thanks. My real challenge is having the time to actually follow up and BE a social entrepreneur... do you have any students at Duke who might be passionat enoug to help?
I absolutely think the model should include a way for women to build their own enterprises so we could develop a broader package of advice (not just the patterns and how to) about how to build a business... it would be difficult to do that in Dadaab where we started this but Dadaab is extreme circumstances but not in many other parts of the world. Key to that would be targetting women in communities where we know there is sports for muslim women going on... they need to have a market to be successful.
Anyway... all food for thought!
annie
HI Suzanne and Paul
These are all great ideas and thanks. My real challenge is having the time to actually follow up and BE a social entrepreneur... do you have any students at Duke who might be passionat enoug to help?
I absolutely think the model should include a way for women to build their own enterprises so we could develop a broader package of advice (not just the patterns and how to) about how to build a business... it would be difficult to do that in Dadaab where we started this but Dadaab is extreme circumstances but not in many other parts of the world. Key to that would be targetting women in communities where we know there is sports for muslim women going on... they need to have a market to be successful.
Anyway... all food for thought!
annie
I also believe this is a fantastic initiative which we can still learn from and also we can strengthen. I definetely think there is a room for our manfacturing partners to be a part of this modal. We just need to find more effective ways of reaching them and sharing our initiatives.
Hi Annie,
As you know, I am a huge fan of this initiative. It strikes me that this could be adapted or adopted by many of the other projects serving women living in communities where physical modesty may pose a constraint to their participation in sport. I also think there is an opportunity to strengthen this model so that their is a more sustained contribution of raw materials to accompany the newly acquired skills of pattern making/ sewing/ and uniform creation so that this can provide more than just an opportunity to play in comfortable attire, but also sustainable livelihoods? Can you comment on whether you think there would be an opportunity to involve Nike's manufacturing partners or others to donate materials on a more sustained basis? Also, I wonder if there is a way to scale the "skills transfer" through instructional videos and downloadable patterns?
Thanks!
Z