1. Background: why SALT exists
Recalled at the sessions
- The stated background of SALT is the convergence of faith-based values with ESG principles, a dynamic shift in approach to sustainable development, rooted in the values of stewardship, compassion and justice.
- The objectives recalled from the network's first conference: illuminate the shared values between faith-based values and ESG principles, highlighting the ethical imperative driving sustainable practices; and showcase innovative strategies and initiatives that integrate value-driven approaches with ESG criteria.
- The network brings corporate and nonprofit organisations together to support each other, mostly corporate supporting nonprofit, in a value-based manner, with people, community and environment as the basis.
- The purpose recalled from the founding document: business leaders who want to use business as a force of good, addressing poverty and promoting sustainable development through ethical and value-driven business practices, uniting the strengths of faith and business for positive social, economic and environmental impact. The framing is faith-based and not limited to one faith.
- The mission settled on for this thematic working group: research and innovation carried out in an ethical manner.
2. Vision and mission (agreed)
25 September
Vision · agreed wording
A world where every resource and operating model creates measurable, transparent and uncompromised value for society.
Mission · agreed wording
As a result of our research and innovation, we hope to change the way research and innovation is done within our businesses and communities, in a value-based manner.
The vision is the seeing of the goal; the mission is the doing. The vision began as "every corporate dollar" and was revised to "every resource". A longer external mission draft, built around value-driven frameworks, robust metrics and research-backed innovation, was set aside as too complex, with plain language agreed for communicating to a broad audience.
3. Agreed keywords and stance
25 September
- Strengthening · research and innovation · evidence-based insights · communities, businesses and institutions together · uphold the values.
- Research must be factual and science-based, working from something already established, not from nowhere, so that findings are believable.
- This is not academic work and not another school; the aim is change, not research for its own sake.
- Grants are not chased by topic such as climate or health; each opportunity is judged by fit with the mission and the value perspective.
Agreed line
We would like to be stewards: the living evidence.
4. Core values carried forward
25 September
- The ten SALT values: stewardship, compassion, community wellbeing, trust, accountability, transformation, justice, integrity, intervention, and interconnectedness with nature.
- The priorities that surfaced in discussion: stewardship, named as number one, then leadership, compassion, community wellbeing, trust, accountability, transformation, justice and integrity.
- The focus stays on the value itself.
5. The three theories that ground the research
25 September
- Moral legitimacy (intrinsic): is an organisation judged by whether its conduct truly reflects the values it professes? Are the values embedded, or only displayed?
- Pragmatic (extrinsic): is the theory implemented in how the organisation actually carries out its work? Do practice and promise align?
- Stakeholder (people-centred): stewardship, justice and all the values, for everyone affected.
- Research examines how to bring these theories to organisations in a way CEOs and founders understand and can use in their companies.
- When the theories become embedded in the organisation, that is what helps produce solutions.
6. Research scope, focus and method
25 September
- The scope stays within values, ethics and the African context; grants are written around leadership values, not everywhere.
- Take TWG 2 to a self-sustaining research and innovation entity. That is the main job.
- Focus areas: AI ethics, the African context, and community wellbeing.
- Reach people without Wi-Fi through channels such as USSD.
- Community wellbeing: the Maasai Mara example was raised, a place that generates millions while the areas around it are known for poverty; the aim is that every such place has community wellbeing.
- Method: actively identify challenges and weaknesses in communities and businesses, conduct research on those challenges, then come up with practical solutions. The research starts from the network's own businesses and communities.
- Innovation is not only about big things: it is about seeing the small problems.
- Research for advocacy and policy change is a legitimate funding avenue, and you never know where money can come from.
- Research can blend with policy change: if a policy issue is being transformed, the network may commission research on it.
7. AI: use and limits
25 September
- AI is fast, but it can hallucinate and tell you what you want to hear; the answer must not be AI-generated with no human intervention.
- When AI gives a result, ask it for citations of where the information came from, then go visit those places and check the information at the source.
- AI aggregates and summarises; it is not the only path. Books on value-driven work and search engines that outline sources allow direct research.
- Using AI is expected as a first step, with the human deciding what stands.
- AI can limit fast thinking; for example, a no-code site builder can make a website quickly but not a real backend well.
- AI has positive and negative effects on the environment, on society and on governance; keep asking whether each use is positive or negative and whether to move ahead.
- The working rule: AI proposes, citations are requested, a person verifies at the source.
8. Funding and resource mobilization
25 September
- Apply for research grants only with solid, specific, evidenced research.
- Grant streams: training grants, innovation project grants and community wellbeing grants.
- Write a number of grants; commission TWG 1 to deliver the training and mobilize the money into the network.
- Mobilize money through innovation projects, working with ideas and visuals to demonstrate value activities in companies in the African context, supported by special and innovative events.
- Identify the challenges governments face and mobilize resources around them.
- Money is sensitive: frame the ask around research value and outcomes, and be clear on why the money is needed.
- Every grant is evaluated by fit with the mission rather than by topic alone.
- Leverage facilities and shared space already available; the space is available, and once people get a stronghold, they come.
- Partner with NGOs that help with research, and prefer collaboration over direct cash: the model is working together rather than handing over money.
- Example discussed: an innovation from ST (Strathmore) partnered with MK Africa Limited, in the same style as other local innovations linked with an NGO.
- An institution runs this model and pays people because it has collaborated with other institutions to help with research.
- Aim for research that can stand on its own.
- Open question: will the school support when a solution is found but resources are limited?
9. Deliverables
25 September
The four best items, plus the follow-on
- Research grants: solid, evidenced research that wins funding.
- Research and innovation projects for companies that need solutions, finding people with various gifts.
- Workshops and innovation events: show how to embed the ten values into corporations, and be very big in this.
- Impact events: give people knowledge, and build useful things such as apps and websites.
- Intentional workshops: showcase what founders and artists have done, with values displayed on the wall of a company so anyone entering understands which values matter.
- Videos to help companies understand value, and websites they can use to teach as an organisation.
- Consider an art workshop or art gala on campus, with the best work drawn up and sold at events.
- Innovation events can be mounted in Nairobi, including workshops in Nairobi and special events on ethical AI, with tech people contextualizing AI in African space where community wellbeing and ethics are most critical values.
- A potential conference: thematic, on leadership and ethics in Africa, possibly several, including ethics in AI use. A strong theme raised: how to make technology and generative AI value-compliant for the African context, drawing on debates such as social media age limits in Europe.
- Impact assessment and post-impact assessment, measuring the network's intervention and capacity building.
- Network-focused research: network surveys, partner surveys and member surveys; the team drives the network's data activities and are custodians of the data.
- Thought leadership tied to events, around Africa leadership and ethics, or ethics and business leadership in Africa, drawing on top leaders who have excelled.
- Review previous research on small businesses and SMEs, and look at where other researchers failed and solutions did not come out well.
- The marketplace idea will also bring change.
Caution raised: do not drift into general research. There is no freedom of resources to do just any research; the work is very targeted, and workshops, innovation events and conferences cannot be run alone. Partnerships and collaboration are essential, and that is a cost issue.
10. Training and capacity development
25 September
- Training and capacity covers both network members and targeted external audiences.
- Someone may ask the network to come and train; the role is to cost it, plan it and deliver it.
- Drive the agenda around values into work: people want to know VESG, train on it, and raise awareness of value-based leadership among members.
- Work with Strathmore University to mount value-based leadership training for a community, which could be paid.
- Build initiatives: ensure training for network members, training for targeted companies, and anything else useful; it is as broad as needed and stays dynamic, never cast in stone.
- The membership keeps growing, so there will be induction for new cohorts coming in.
11. How it runs, and who leads
25 September
- This is a voluntary network and a community of practice; volunteering time must stay light and not become a job, so terms of reference must not tie professionals down.
- The network does not take people off their work; it will not take even an eighth of anyone's time.
- Nominate a leader and vice leader, plus a secretary and treasurer.
- Leadership is gender-balanced; both women and men are embraced, and a top leader is still to be named.
- Each thematic working group proposes its own leader and holds independent meetings with a secretary to facilitate, kept low-cost in energy and time.
- Propose top-notch leaders to come and speak to inspire the network.
- Thematic working groups: TWG 1 for training and capacity, TWG 2 for research and innovation (room B01), and a fundraising stream.
- Up to six thematic working groups were constituted; some were collapsed and the operational ones moved into the secretariat, driven by Strathmore University and a partner in Kenya, leaving only the action-oriented ones.
- Question raised about a marketing network and where it went; that is a domain to note.
- The fundraising stream has trips and trainings to deliver, including leadership training and value investigations never done before.
These minutes record what was agreed across the five sessions of 25 September.