Growth with purpose: young innovators take the SDG stage
At Vodacom World, a new cohort of young professionals began turning the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) into business challenges they can solve – with customers, communities and Vision 2030 in mind.
The starting line
On 6 March 2026, Vodacom World became the starting line for a nine-month innovation journey. Around 100 young professionals from about 25 companies gathered for the UN Global Compact SDG Innovation Camp, hosted by Vodacom as principal sponsor in partnership with the UN Global Compact Network South Africa.
For Vodacom’s newest cohort, the brief was clear: don’t rush to solutions. First, understand the problem.
The UN Sustainable Development Goals can feel vast – climate action, inequality, decent work, health, education, and more. The Accelerator asks young professionals to bring those goals closer to the business: to identify the risks and opportunities sitting inside value chains, customer experiences, operations and markets. The work is not charity on the side. It is business innovation, shaped by purpose.
What the Accelerator does
The UN Global Compact SDG Innovation Accelerator for Young Professionals is a nine-month global development programme. It helps young professionals turn SDG-aligned challenges into commercially viable, scalable business solutions through design thinking, systems thinking, mentorship, business modelling and impact measurement.
Innovation from every angle
The Vodacom cohort brings together a wide variety of specialists from different disciplines, teams and parts of the company. Participants come from across Group and operating company environments, including Vodacom South Africa, Lesotho and DRC, as well as MAST and XLink.
The mix is the point. The Accelerator isn’t only for product or technology teams. It needs people who understand data, customers, commercial models, regulation, risk, operations, people and culture. When those perspectives meet around one challenge, the conversation changes. A problem is no longer viewed through a single lens; it becomes something the business can understand more fully and, ultimately, solve more effectively.
Cross-market energy is vital for Vodacom’s Vision 2030 ambition: to grow beyond mobile, deepen digital and financial inclusion, build trusted platforms and partnerships, and keep improving customer experience. These priorities need technology skills, yes – but also legal judgement, commercial instinct, human insight and the confidence to challenge old models.
2026 cohort at a glance
- Launch: 6 March 2026 at Vodacom World
- Convened with UN Global Compact Network South Africa
- Around 100 innovators from about 25 companies
- Vodacom representation: Group, Vodacom South Africa, Lesotho, DRC, MAST and XLink
- Programme focus: challenge identification, customer needs, commercial value and SDG impact
Purpose and profit, in the same room
At the launch, Matimba Mbungela, Chief Officer: Human Resources of Vodacom Group, positioned the Accelerator as both a strategic innovation platform and a leadership development programme. His message to the cohort was to be bold, challenge the status quo, collaborate across silos and treat innovation as a core business capability.
The programme is designed around a simple but powerful belief: profit and purpose can coexist. When a solution improves daily life and makes commercial sense, it has a better chance of scaling. That is why participants will spend the coming months learning through design thinking, systems thinking and data-driven problem-solving. They’ll test ideas, refine assumptions and look for solutions that are human-centred, scalable and commercially viable.
Dr Achieng Ojwang, Executive Director of Global Compact Network South Africa, captured the stretch of the journey ahead: “You will challenge yourself and your team. You’ll discover yourself, you’ll discover your talents, and the SDG Innovation Accelerator will stretch your thinking.”
She reminded participants why business belongs in this space: “The solutions you come up with have the potential for high impact – what makes sense for the company and makes sense for society matters.”
A track record to build on
Vodacom isn’t arriving at the Accelerator for the first time. To date, 48 Vodacom young professionals have taken part, building skills, networks and ideas that continue to shape the organisation. Past concepts have explored areas directly connected to our growth agenda: healthcare access, SME growth and affordable connectivity.
Examples include eVuka, a digital health stokvel concept aimed at improving access to care; Sokoni Marketplace, designed to support MSMEs through trade, logistics and payments; and ConnectZero, a connectivity idea exploring zero-cost calls funded through audio advertising. Each of these ideas starts with a real societal pressure point and asks whether Vodacom’s capabilities can help build a viable business response.
That is the Accelerator’s strength. It gives young professionals a method, a network and a stage. It also gives Vodacom a sharper view of where future growth may come from – not only in products, but in the people learning how to build them.
Meet our 2026 SDG innovators
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| Innovator | Role | Company / Market |
|---|---|---|
| Vhuhwavho Matibe | Senior Data Scientist | Vodacom Group |
| Daelyn Naidoo | Business Analyst | Vodacom South Africa |
| Siviwe Boyisi | Specialist: Chatbot TOBI | Vodacom South Africa |
| Akshay Sukhlal | Property specialist | Vodacom South Africa |
Why this matters now
For Vision 2030, future-ready growth will depend on more than infrastructure. It will depend on people who can connect customer needs, data, platforms, partnerships and social impact in practical ways. The Accelerator creates a safe but demanding space to practise exactly that.
This year, Vodacom received 120 applications for the programme – a strong sign that young professionals want to help shape what comes next. Over nine months, the 2026 cohort will move from challenge identification into solution design, testing and refinement. They’ll work across companies and geographies, with mentors and peers pushing their thinking beyond incremental improvements towards system-level impact.
Dr Ojwang described the programme as “one of our best because of the reception that South African young people in business have given to it”. For Vodacom, that reception is also a signal. The next generation of leaders isn’t waiting for the future to arrive. They are learning how to build it, one business-relevant challenge at a time.
