Map the System
Map the System is a global competition which encourages university students to utilise systems thinking to address current social, economic, and environmental challenges. Map the System prioritises a systems approach because “there are increasing numbers of students across the globe interested in entrepreneurship for systems-change – there are hack-a-thons, start-up weekends, and business plan competitions – all asking students for their solutions to social and/or environmental problems through new enterprises. But social transformation doesn’t happen in a silo, nor does it come from one person or one great idea. And often students are proposing solutions to problems that they have no lived experience of, and don’t fully understand.” Systems thinking is introduced as a valuable methodology because it allows the participants to recognise the complexity of the issues they are dealing with and to grapple with the structural and social factors that have created the challenge.
The competition is hosted in partnership with Saïd Business School and the Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship. The University of Cape Town (UCT), with the support of the Bertha Centre, took part in the competition for five years and in each year, the winning team from the UCT leg of the competition has gone on to represent UCT at the University of Oxford where the final is held. Bertha Centre proudly hosted the regional finals every year and sponsorsed the winning team to attend the competition in Oxford.
In 2022, the UCT team won Map the System 2022! Over 950 teams, from 64 higher education institutions across the world took part in the competition. The UCT team of Janine Rutsch, Makhadze Baloyi and Lauren Fray, Finclusive, focused on "Financial Exclusion in South African Mortgage Provision", and identified that ‘missing middle’ households are being financially excluded from the mortgage system, fueling further inequality in South Africa.
Their project findings highlighted access to financing as key for homeownership, which in turn enables wealth accumulation and upward mobility. These benefits culminate in greater income equality, which has a huge societal impact. Their work encourages the development of innovative financial instruments to fill the gap in the market and de-risk and reduce perceived risk of this gap in the market.