What Could I Do With a Business Degree in Missions Overseas
The term “overseas missions” carries certain connotations: religious instruction, medical care and construction projects. Taking trained professionals in such fields into spiritually and materially impoverished regions remains at the core of many mission-sponsoring agencies today. While these important and worthy functions can not be neglected, new missions activists are discovering another powerful way to leave a positive legacy with the communities they serve. Premised on the old—perhaps overused—adage that teaching a man to fish feeds him for a lifetime, new mission projects are often focusing on building businesses and fostering entrepreneurship among needy peoples. To accomplish these goals, they recruit successful executives and college graduates with business degrees.
The Power of Micro-Enterprise
Even in developed societies, small businesses are the driving force in their economies. According to the U.S. Small Business Administration, for example, small businesses contribute nearly half of all private sector employment in the United States. These organizations have 500 or fewer employees on their payrolls. In less economically advanced parts of the world, where people live at a subsistence level, creating prosperity must begin more modestly. Micro-enterprises are generally defined as employing six or fewer, often set up as sole proprietorships. The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) reported a 76-percent financial sustainability success rate among those overseas micro-enterprises to which it extended financial assistance. Clearly, equipping these businesses—often farms—with the tools to efficiently produce and better market their goods and services yields dividends in terms of quality of life.
Micro-Enterprise in Overseas Missions: Kyklou International
The difficulties of agriculture in Uganda are well-known in Africa. Farmers wishing to transition from subsistence to commercial farming face multiple obstacles, including poor infrastructure, corrupt middlemen and isolation from timely market information. Enter Kyklou International, a non-profit investment partnership funded by churches, ministries and charities. Kyklou recruited a corps of agricultural scientists and business analysts to create a visble hog farm, the profits of which support an orphanage and school. Simultaneously, Kyklou created a business model by which local maize farmers gain improved access to markets, commanding competitive prices. Thorough grounding in market analysis, management and human resources allowed Kyklou’s partners to design and execute these enterprises.
Micro-Enterprise in Overseas Missions: Five Talents
With offices in London and Washington, DC, Five Talents is an organization conceived by a global gathering of Anglican bishops in 1998. The aim of this program is to alleviate poverty in developing countries and follow the Christian directive to treat the poor with dignity. By designing savings programs tailored to each client, Five Talents can then extend credit, provide training and spiritually minister to the budding entrepreneur. As their businesses yield profit, clients can then supply better diets and living conditions for their families. The small financial investment goes far in impoverished areas.
These examples, and many others, demonstrate the value of business training to the aims of overseas missions. Finance, risk, accounting and valuation all come into play when helping the needy raise their own standard of living. A business degree can accordingly prove a significant asset to a missions-minded graduate. Offering a helping hand enhances the all-important spiritual message.
