Social Entrepreneurs at World Economic Forum Events - 2008

  India Economic Summit 2008

  Annual Meeting of the New Champions 2008

  World Economic Forum on Africa

                                                   
The Social Entrepreneur of the Year 2008 in India is Arbind Singh

Together with the world’s top thought leaders from business, academia, and government, social entrepreneurs contributed to shaping “the post-crisis world” at the inaugural Summit on the Global Agenda. More than 700 participants gathered in Dubai to discuss the current state and suggested actions on the key challenges the world is facing.

Among the participants were 34 social entrepreneurs from the Schwab Foundation network. They actively contributed to more than 20 of the 70 Global Agenda Councils on subjects ranging from water scarcity, gender parity, financial empowerment, biodiversity to youth empowerment and trade regime.

One of the Councils focused on the key challenges of social entrepreneurship itself. The concept has gained recognition in the last few years. In order to be more widely embraced by governments and businesses in particular, the key areas identified are the need to show metrics for the field as well as demonstrate that successful social innovations can truly be scaled. To read full report, click here

Social entrepreneurs have an important lesson to share in today’s financial crisis. They emphasize long-term sustainability instead of short-term gain. Their primary focus is to maximize benefits for society and the environment. They operate social businesses or organizations that are a mixture of non-profits and for-profits. The Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship, an affiliate organization of the World Economic Forum, conducts the search and selection for the Social Entrepreneur of the Year in 25 countries around the world. In Europe, the Foundation partners with The Boston Consulting Group and Ernst & Young to identify the leading social entrepreneurs on the continent.

The following five winners were awarded the Europe Social Entrepreneur of the Year 2008:

Nebahat Akkoc, Kamer, Turkey -  Hybrid Non-profit
Having experienced violence firsthand, Akkoc founded Kamer to share her experiences and awareness with other women. Working in all 23 provinces of Eastern and South-Eastern Anatolia, Kamer holds awareness-raising campaigns and educational activities on issues of domestic violence. In an area that is characterized by traditional, sexist and tribal social structures, the organization has been successful due to its fostering of a self-empowered, grassroots movement to promote social and political change. Beyond providing social support for women facing domestic violence, Kamer has launched an entrepreneurship programme that allows women to empower themselves through ownership of small businesses, such as day-care centres and restaurants. Since its creation in 1997, Kamer has reached 40,000 women through its educational programming, and has provided legal, psychological and social support for 3,000 women facing domestic violence.

Aynur Bektas, Hey Tekstil, Turkey - Social Business
Hey Tekstil invested in less-developed regions of Anatolia, which has led to radical socio-economic change. From her position as the president of the Turkish Clothing Manufacturers’ Association, Bektas advocated for relocating production to the underdeveloped regions of Anatolia. In cooperation with public authorities, Hey Tekstil transformed empty buildings in Anatolian cities into manufacturing factories. This innovative investment created employment opportunities for young people and women. The project first started to teach women to organize a small production place, and later expanded to a big investment project with four major sites around Anatolia. Since its creation in 1992, Hey Tekstil has grown to become the largest knitwear manufacturing company in Turkey and is the source for the biggest retail chains, employing more than 3,500 people.

Reed Paget, Belu Water, United Kingdom - Social Business
In the last 150 years, the world’s population has used or polluted two-thirds of the available fresh water, and by 2050 we will have run out of the rest. Belu Water was launched to harness the resources of business and use them to create a sustainable balance between people and the planet. Belu has introduced the UK’s first biodegradable and compostable plastic bottle made from corn. They look like ordinary plastic bottles, and can be recycled with plastics or commercially composted back into soil in just eight weeks. By demonstrating that eco-friendly bottles are economically viable, Belu is leading a change in favour of a more sustainable approach to consumer goods. Belu has also reduced its carbon footprint by using clean electricity and locally sourced water. Belu invests 100% of its profits in water projects. Through investments in WaterAid, a clean water charity, Belu is funding wells and hand-pumps in Tamil Nadu and Mali, which provide water for 20,000 people. Further plans include funding of eco-sanitation projects to treat sewerage to produce fertilizer.

Marco Roveda, LifeGate Group, Italy - Social Business
LifeGate Group is a business based on the “zero impact” motto to promote a sustainable, profitable future. The range of LifeGate activities and enterprises span from LifeGate Radio, promoting environmental consciousness, to LifeGate Café providing goods from biological agriculture in the FairTrade markets. Of the most noteworthy enterprises, Impatto Zero (zero impact) is a project to evaluate and reduce carbon emissions, involving a number of universities and over 450 companies. Impatto Zero compensates companies’ emissions with a reforestation programme in one of the biggest natural parks in Italy (Parco del Ticino) and in Costa Rica, in partnership with the Costa Rican Ministry of Environment and Energy. So far, the project has created 13 million square metres of new forest. In another field, LifeGate Energy, the first Italian distributor of 100% clean energy, distributed over 30 million kWh to businesses last year. The next step for this project is to open up to private citizens by the end of 2008, once legislation is in place.

Rose Volz-Schmidt, Wellcome, Germany  - Hybrid Non-profit
Young families in Germany face stressful situations as the country’s mobile working class often does not receive family support in raising children. One consequence has been steadily declining birth rates. Wellcome supports new families by recruiting and training older, experienced mothers as volunteers to go into families in distress on a temporary basis. Families pay a fee of 4 euros per hour for support by a volunteer. To address the lack of knowledge on other sources of support, Wellcome also works with a network of paediatricians and family services to refer families in need of help. Organized as a social franchise, Wellcome has 50 local teams working independently across Germany, which have adopted the concept into regional family institutions. According to a study by the University of Kiel, the Wellcome concept has a proven potential to prevent violence against children. Since its creation in 2002, Wellcome has helped 1,200 families across Germany.

Representing the Schwab Foundation's community of social entrepreneurs, Vikram Akula, Sheela Patel, David Green, Harish Hande, and Joe Madiath participated in the World Economic Forum's Annual Meeting of the New Champions in Tianjin, China on September 27-28.  In making connections with the Forum's vast network of conference attendees, our social entrepreneurs also brought special attention to their specific causes as well as social impact at large, in the light of growing interest among business and political leaders. 

Moreover, Vikram Akula and David Green facilitated an interactive and collaborative hands-on workshop entitled "Rethinking the Base of the Pyramid." Participants were given demographic and socioeconomic data for an unnamed region, and then asked to create and model a service/product for their respective region's Base of the Pyramid (BoP) consumers.  BoP customers encompass a largely untapped rural consumer market.  There is huge opportunity in harnessing this informal economy, and represents a $5 trillion market with 3 billion customers who live on $2-$10 US dollars a day. Key insights from the session include leveraging the community aspect of rural populations to market, distribute, and scale your product. For example, village buy-in can be crucial to the success and viability of your product or service.  Moreover, it is important to consider the level of complexity of BoP markets with respect to pricing, accessibility, and customer-specific service or product design. BoP market entry risks can be mitigated through creative public private partnerships. For instance, in many emerging markets, state-owned enterprises have long dominated the industry landscape. The transition towards privatization can be tricky, thus, highlighting the need for synergistic efforts among corporations, SMEs, local community organizations, and government agencies.  Social enterprises lend yet another powerful channel to bridge the effort.

          Africa Social Entrepreneurs’ Meeting 2008 - "Matching Resources to Sustainable Solutions in Africa"

          South Africa Social Entrepreneurs 2008

Five finalists for the Social Entrepreneur Award for South Africa 2008 were announced at the opening plenary of the World Economic Forum on Africa in the presence of Thabo Mbeki, former President of South Africa.

   The Finalists