A sustainable life design that unites the Global North and South

When Danish-South African Thandi Dyani had to choose a career path, it didn’t feel like a choice. It felt more like a natural duty.

Because as the child of a political refugee from the apartheid system, she was introduced to the world’s inequalities early on. And with her many subsequent travels in both Sub-Saharan Africa, the USA and the Caribbean, it became even more clear to her that we are not all equally lucky with where we are born and where we live our lives.

And thus her great interest in social affairs was awakened.

From classic career path to sustainable life design

Thandi Dyani could have chosen to look up the book “What can I become”. But instead she chose to design her working life herself around her passion for Africa, development and entrepreneurship.

As she explains:

One experience has built on top of the other, so in many ways, I see the different parts of my working life as building blocks for what can be achieved on the CSR front – both in the North and the South.

Over the years, Thandi has thus worked broadly with global development, CSR and social entrepreneurship in the intersection between the private, public, and non-profit sectors.

For example at Danida in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs with a focus on humanitarian efforts; as a consultant in Johannesburg with a focus on CSR projects for large corporates and advocacy work for the UN; at the Mandela Foundation, where she ran awareness events on resilience and conflict resolution; with her own social enterprise One Groove, which focused on youth empowerment through music and entrepreneurship; and finally at KPH (today DISIE), where she helped build the Danish ecosystem for social entrepreneurs and impact startups.

The training was the starting point for a new chapter of work

Despite the many years of experience from the ecosystem for social impact and innovation, Thandi felt that she was still missing something to fully achieve her dreams and ambitions.

That’s why last year she chose to take the practical certification training, Sustainable Business Change Manager to get more practical tools and a better understanding of the field in general. She ended up putting together a dream portfolio of tasks to unite the Global North and South.

As Thandi explains:

I went from being in transition about my working life, about what I had to do and in what direction. I have worked very niche with startups and the African continent. So there has been a gap in terms of getting under the skin of socially responsible business strategies for more mainstream companies and in terms of being able to ‘speak the same language’. The education gave me the push to take a giant step upwards and outwards.

The work to unite the Global North and South continues…

Today, Thandi Dyani works as director of Impact Hub Johannesburg , which focuses on building the South African ecosystem for impact entrepreneurship, social innovation and CSR, and on that basis was invited to the World Responsible Leaders Forum, which focuses on global development and the UN’s Global Goals.

At the same time, Thandi Dyani is also head of the small Danish foundation, One Life Foundation, which both advises and distributes funds to social innovators (“changemakers”) and social entrepreneurs (“early stage impact startups”).

The training was not only the start of a new working chapter. More concretely, it has given me a better understanding of CSR and useful tools for strategic considerations around CSR partnerships. I have gained a better foundation to be able to communicate and work across sectors around sustainable development. And it has proven to be especially valuable when you find yourself at a crossroads between legislation in South Africa and large companies that must be “compliant” with this legislation – but where there is not yet any special culture to act responsibly, says Thandi.

The Danish link must be strengthened even more

But the work to unite North and South does not stop here.

Thandi Dyani is simultaneously working on opening an Impact Hub in Copenhagen for Danish impact and diaspora startups working on the African continent.

At the same time, Thandi advises on a consultant basis both startups and international actors in sustainable business development, cultural understanding, and program and network development in Africa.

On the whole, she is concerned with getting a wide range of Danish players involved in sustainable business solutions, partnerships and investments, which should give a new understanding of the potential and opportunities on the African continent.

Thandi’s 3 good tips for sustainable life design

Tip #1: Think in 4 P’s – your Passion must drive your work with People, Planet, Profit.

Tip# 2: Keep at it! Although the work with sustainable development can sometimes seem prohibitive and hard, it is important to fight on and know that even the small steps count.

Tip #3: Find a supportive network – I myself am part of a network for the fully qualified Sustainable Business Change Managers (SBCM Alumni Forum), and it means so much to have “colleagues” who understand the struggles and barriers you have to go through, and who to celebrate with when you overcome them.

Read more about Thandi’s work at www.thandidyani.com

The Sustainable Business Change Manager Online certificate programme is provided by TANIA ELLIS – The Social Business Company®, a leading Scandinavian-based speaking, consulting and training company. The programme is supported by B Corp Movement in the Nordics and endorsed by Henley Business School Denmark. Sign up to our Academy newsletter to learn more about our training opportunities.

Learn more at www.sustainablebusinesschangemanager.com