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“Social procurement can turn everyday commerce into impact”- an interview with James Okina

by Kasia Kotlarska / September 2025

James Okina’s journey with SEWF began in 2019. Since then, he has spoken at SEWF23 and now serves on the SEWF Youth Advisory Group.

He is the Founder of Street Priests and Director of Design at Watson Institute, where he curates fellowships for entrepreneurs from historically underrepresented backgrounds. James also shares his expertise on the boards of several global organisations focused on building opportunities for young people.

This October, James will take the SEWF25 stage, bringing his voice and experience to the global conversation on social enterprise. Ahead of the event, we sat down with him to explore his reflections on turning struggle into innovation, designing with empathy and ensuring that young people are not just included but recognised as co-creators of the future.

“For me, social innovation isn’t just another pursuit on a long list of human endeavours, it ought to be the pursuit. “

You’re the founder of Street Priests, a youth led organisation inspired by your own lived experience. How has that personal journey shaped your work and approach to social innovation?

My journey as the founder of Street Priests and through my own personal life has definitely shaped not just what I do, but how I see the world and approach social innovation. There’s a quote that has long captured my approach toward this work: “We, the willing, having done so much with so little for so long, are now qualified to do anything with nothing.” That spirit defines me. It’s difficult for me to accept the idea of a wall or a dead end, because I’ve lived in spaces where hope itself was the only currency, the only medicine people had to get through each day. That experience taught me that the very act of being in a position to solve a problem is itself a privilege. A privilege that demands responsibility, humility and urgency. The reality is sobering: We live in a world overflowing with wealth, knowledge and solutions, yet millions of children still go to bed hungry, or cannot even afford to go to bed at all. The problem is rarely the absence of solutions; it is the absence of will. If enough people cared enough to bridge the gap between solutions and the problems they are meant to address, half the organisations we know today would no longer need to exist, because those problems would already be solved. My upbringing forged in me a certain grit, a relentless insistence that more must be done. And it taught me that grit and will are the lifeblood of true social innovation. For me, social innovation isn’t just another pursuit on a long list of human endeavours, it ought to be the pursuit. Everything we do should move us closer to a world where life is liveable for everyone, because our collective well-being is inseparably bound together.

”At this intersection, between supporting young social entrepreneurs and leveraging procurement as a tool lies the possibility of large-scale systemic change.”

At Watson Institute, your work increasingly focuses on supporting young social entrepreneurs and exploring social procurement as a tool for impact. What opportunities do you see at the intersection of these two areas?

The concept of social procurement is transformative because it reframes social impact not as a matter of philanthropy or charity, but as an integral partner within the mainstream business and profit-driven world. Rather than positioning impact as something peripheral or “nice to have”, social procurement demonstrates that it can sit at the very heart of how markets function. Globally, procurement spending exceeds $20 trillion annually. Now imagine if even a fraction of that economic power were harnessed not only to optimise the efficiency of businesses, but also to generate lasting social good. That is the promise of social procurement: To convert existing streams of commerce into engines of impact. At this intersection, between supporting young social entrepreneurs and leveraging procurement as a tool lies the possibility of large-scale systemic change. When corporations choose to work with social enterprises, they don’t merely create transactional value: they create transformational impact. They are, in effect, embedding impact into the DNA of their supply chains. This isn’t about adding a layer of responsibility after profit, it is about redefining profit itself in a way that acknowledges its interdependence with human well-being. In truth, the business case for social impact has always existed. No city plagued by crime, poverty or hopelessness can serve as fertile ground for sustainable growth. Prosperity that is not shared is prosperity that will eventually collapse under its own weight. Social procurement makes this business case unavoidable, it reveals that the most profitable path is also the most inclusive one. And there is another layer: the generational bridge. Social procurement creates a channel through which economic power can flow toward young social entrepreneurs who are inheriting today’s problems and tasked with solving tomorrow’s. It becomes not just a strategy for impact, but a form of wealth transfer equipping the next generation with the resources, trust and opportunities they need to address challenges on a global scale. Ultimately, social procurement represents more than an innovative tool. It is a vision of business reimagined, where profit and impact are not in tension, but inextricably aligned and where the collective prosperity of all becomes the true measure of success.

At Watson Institute, we recently launched a partnership with SAP to advance the field of social procurement and spotlight the untapped potential and return on investment of young, impact-driven entrepreneurs. In the coming weeks, we’ll be releasing a Learning Report that outlines the key challenges these entrepreneurs face, along with best practices they can adopt to distinguish themselves in this evolving landscape. Stay tuned!

You’ve worked extensively with at-risk youth and marginalised communities. What are the key principles you’ve learned about designing programmes that genuinely meet their needs?

Too often, in my experience, the people who design programmes are far removed from the realities those programmes are meant to address. That distance creates a gap between theory and lived experience, between intention and impact. What I bring to my work is a perspective shaped by both: I design from within the very contexts I am serving. The populations I design for, the outcomes I seek, these are not abstractions to me; they are part of my own story. I have lived them. And I have been privileged to pair that lived experience with education and exposure, allowing me to translate pain into purpose and perspective into practice. This makes my work not just professional but also profoundly personal. Over the years, I’ve come to recognise a few guiding principles that shape meaningful programme design. First is the importance of designing for extreme users. It is easy to build for those who already have the tools, resources or support systems in place. But true inclusivity emerges when you begin at the margins when you design for those whose needs are most acute. Doing so ensures no one is excluded and in the process, everyone is carried forward. Second is empathy-driven design. You cannot design authentically if you are not deeply attuned to the people you are designing for. Numbers and data have their place, but I don’t design for statistics, I design for human beings. That orientation, that insistence on seeing the person before the problem, is what allows my work to resonate across backgrounds, across circumstances and across differences. Finally, I design with a burden. It is the burden of at-risk youth, of marginalised communities, of those who ache for a world more just and systems more equitable. I carry their voices, their struggles, their aspirations. For me, design cannot be sterile or detached; it cannot be aesthetic for its own sake. Design must emerge from the fire of conviction, from the urgency of addressing suffering that is both visible and invisible. It must come from a place of burden, because only then does it carry the power to not just look good, but to do good.

As a member of the SEWF Youth Advisory Group and having spoken at SEWF23 — how has your journey with SEWF influenced your work and global perspective?

My journey with SEWF began in 2019, when I had the privilege of attending SEWF in Addis Ababa, an opportunity made possible through the generosity and collaboration of the We Are Family Foundation and SAP. What started as a single encounter has since unfolded into a relationship that continues to grow and take other forms. I’ve had the honour of speaking at SEWF23, contributing to SEWF online and now serving as a member of the SEWF Youth Advisory Group. But what makes SEWF truly distinctive is that it doesn’t feel like a conference in the conventional sense. It feels more like a living ecosystem, a gathering of visionaries, dreamers and doers who come not simply to present, but to genuinely collaborate. It is a space where you are immersed in the extraordinary work of changemakers from every corner of the globe. The influence of SEWF on my own journey cannot be overstated. Much of my present work in the field of social procurement traces its roots back to SEWF23. During the Fringe Day event, I encountered practitioners and stakeholders whose perspectives fundamentally expanded my understanding of what was possible. For me, SEWF has been more than an event; it has been a catalyst. It has opened doors to global conversations, connected me with communities of practice and provided me with very important stakeholders.

“Young people are not merely beneficiaries of change, they are co-creators of the future we are all striving toward.”

SEWF25 will bring together changemakers from across the world. What’s the one message or challenge you hope to put to the global social enterprise community during the event?

The challenge I want to extend to the global social enterprise community ahead of SEWF25 is this: Include young people in the heart of what you do. Don’t just design programmes for young people, build them with young people. And not in a tokenistic or symbolic way, but in ways that are sincere, intentional and rooted in partnership. When you ask the right questions and create space for authentic engagement, you will discover the right young voices. And those voices will not only enrich your work, they will help future-proof it. Young people are not merely beneficiaries of change, they are co-creators of the future we are all striving toward.
So my challenge to the global social enterprise community is clear: Move beyond representation and toward genuine collaboration with the next generation. The future is already theirs, our task is to ensure they have a seat at the table where that future is being designed.

If you could reimagine one global policy to better support young changemakers, what would it be and how would you implement it?

A global policy to support changemakers, particularly young ones, should take a two-pronged approach. The first is to establish clear incentives by governments and institutions to recognise and reward the impact work of young people. This recognition could take many forms: work experience credits, scholarships or even a form of “currency” that acknowledges and can be redeemed for their contributions. The goal is to give tangible value to the transformative work young people are already doing. Such recognition should not be limited to a single level of governance; it can and should be implemented locally, nationally and even within educational institutions. Young people who actively engage in creating meaningful change should receive credit for their work, because there is no education more powerful than hands-on, real-world problem-solving. Being on the ground, tackling pressing societal challenges and effecting change is not just an act of service, it is one of the most profound forms of learning and growth. By valuing and formalising the contributions of young changemakers, we empower a generation to see their work not only as meaningful but as essential to the fabric of society.

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Kasia Kotlarska - Communications Manager at SEWF

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