Newsletter - February 2010


Dear Schwab Social Entrepreneur,

“We’ve come a long way, baby”, says Linda Rottenberg, when reflecting on the past 10 years in the field of social entrepreneurship. The year 2010 also marks the 10 year anniversary of the Schwab Foundation, which started its operations in mid-2000. No doubt, the role social entrepreneurs played in Davos this year was very different from 2002, when the first group of 40 Schwab social entrepreneurs, including Linda, took part in the Annual Meeting.

Social entrepreneurs were very sought after on a broad range of topics and in many CEO industry meetings ranging from media& entertainment, financial services, telecom, consumer industry, energy to real estate. Lively interactions between social entrepreneurs, corporate representatives and international organizations also took place in WorkSpace and IdeasLab sessions (read highlights below). Vikram Akula shared the plenary stage with Bill Gates, Jeffrey Sachs and Helen Clark (UNDP) to discuss the Millennium Development Goals and the social business contribution to them. To illustrate how far we have come, Jose Ignacio Avalos shared that three years ago he fought long to get a meeting with the head of a major UN agency. This year, she contacted him for a meeting.

World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2010 - Session Highlights

Social Entrepreneurs’ Dinner
The Schwab Foundation activities kicked off on January 26 with a Welcome Meeting for Davos first-timers and an Opening Dinner for all social entrepreneurs and partners Ernst & Young, HP and the Frey Foundation. Muhammad Yunus joined the dinner as representative of the board in addition to Hilde Schwab. The dinner was an opportunity to catch up with old friends and meet new ones. Nine of the participating social entrepreneurs participated in Davos for the first time. In addition, the 10 social entrepreneurs presented and discussed their Global Redesign proposals.

Business Solutions to Rural Poverty – Workspace
Over 50 high-level Annual Meeting participants assembled to learn more about innovative GRI proposals submitted by social entrepreneurs in the session “Business Solutions to Rural Poverty”. Linda Rottenberg, Martin Fisher, Tim Hanstad, Helmy Abouleish, Bruce McNamer and Vijay Mahajan all presented their ideas and led discussion groups in an effort to rethink opportunities to generate prosperity in rural areas and redesign initiatives that can improve the livelihoods of millions of people.

To learn more about the ideas discussed during the WorkSpace, please follow this link.

IdeasLab with Social Entrepreneurs
This year marks the first Annual Meeting in which social entrepreneurs enjoyed their own branded session in the official programme. The “IdeasLab with Social Entrepreneurs” chaired by esteemed Professor of Social Entrepreneurship, Greg Dees, enabled Iftekhar Enayetullah, Kyle Zimmer, Reed Page, Gene Falk and Naif Al Mutawa to present the successes and next steps of their respective organizations to the Davos community in an interactive, multimedia format.

“Some social ventures are succeeding in dramatic ways, and demonstrate potential for even greater social impact,” said Greg Dees. “Their ideas are diverse, as are the challenges they face. But if we are successful in helping them take their work to the next level, we all benefit in the process.” To watch the YouTube videos of their five-minute presentations, see below.

• Iftekhar Enayetullah – Waste Concern
• Kyle Zimmer – FirstBook
• Reed Page – Belu Water
• Gene Falk – mothers2mothers
• Naif Al Mutawa – THE 99
 
Entrepreneurship: Key to Sustainable Growth Dinner
This dinner session brought together various protagonists promoting, teaching, practicing and/or facilitating entrepreneurship in various forms, particularly emphasizing entrepreneurship with a social goal and among disadvantaged population groups. Read more.

“The Dynamic Duo” – What happens when you bring Social Entrepreneurs and Technology Pioneers together over breakfast?
“A problem-solving clinic – real solutions and concrete outcomes,” one participant enthusiastically reported.
In this interactive brainstorming session, Social Entrepreneurs thought about how enabling technologies could further their work; Tech Pioneers were challenged to incorporate emerging market or social impact applications into their technologies. Many learnings and collaborative opportunities arose from the energy-filled discussions.

Celebrating 10 Years of the Schwab Foundation
A 10 year Anniversary Reception was held on 28 January 2010 for social entrepreneurs, partners and guests of the Schwab Foundation. Professor Klaus Schwab and Mrs Hilde Schwab introduced the session, followed by inspirational remarks by Foundation Board member Muhammad Yunus. Our partner BCG presented the German Social Entrepreneur of the Year 2009 to Thilo Bode, along with the three finalists. Our Foundation Board member Paulo Coelho closed with final remarks. The celebration was attended by 200 guests. Press Release

Social Entrepreneurs participating in the Annual Meeting in Davos
To see the 31 Schwab Social Entrepreneurs who took part in the Meeting, please follow this link.

Autumn Events 2009

Annual Meeting of the New Champions 2009
Dalian, People’s Republic of China

Fourteen Social Entrepreneurs took part in the Annual Meeting of the New Champions 2009, and contributed at interactive community events with Technology Pioneers, the International Media Council and the Young Global Leaders. The Social Entrepreneurs also piloted an innovative and highly successful official session format called the “IdeasLab”, where entrepreneurs presented their work through visual images followed by breakout groups. Four Asia-based Social Entrepreneurs, who newly joined the Schwab Foundation network, were recognized during the closing plenary.
Read more.

India Economic Summit
New Delhi, India, 8-10 November 2009

Nine outstanding Social Entrepreneurs of the Schwab Foundation's network took part in the Summit and the discussions.
To see the list of participants, please follow this link.

The winners of the India Social Entrepreneur 2009 Competition were awarded in the presence of Anand Sharma, Minister of Commerce and Industry: Rajendra Joshi, Saath; Brij Kothari, PlanetRead; Padmanabha and Rama Rao, RIVER, Andhra Pradesh.
Read more.

Summit on the Global Agenda
Dubai, United Arab Emirates, 20-22 November 2009

Ten out of the 20 members of the 2009-2010 Global Agenda Council on Social Entrepreneurship met in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, on 20-22 November 2009. Led by Co-Chair Vijay Mahajan, council members deliberated over the 2.5 day Summit on the key obstacles, needs and opportunities for the diverse set of organizations working across the social entrepreneurship spectrum, and brainstormed ways the international community could foster the maturing field of social entrepreneurship under the auspices of the World Economic Forum’s Global Redesign Initiative.

To see the full list of council members, please follow this link. You can also read the council’s two-page report here.

Your input and suggestions on how to move forward with the council’s proposals are most welcome, so please let us know your thoughts.

Meet the 2009 Social Entrepreneurs
2009 Social Entrepreneurs
Over the course of 2009, 27 Social Entrepreneurs from 24 organizations across the world joined the Schwab community.

To see who they are, please follow this link.

Global Redesign Initiative / Global Agenda Council Update

Global Redesign Initiative
Under the Annual Meeting theme of Rethink, Redesign, Rebuild, participants debated dozens of innovative ideas and policy proposals submitted by Global Agenda Councils, Social Entrepreneurs, Young Global Leaders and other groups as part of the Global Redesign Initiative (GRI) process. The Schwab Foundation received over 30 GRI proposals from Social Entrepreneurs and has been vigorously lobbying both internal teams and external constituents to incorporate these ideas into the final GRI report, which will be launched at a special Summit in Doha, Qatar, in May 2010.
Read more about the GRI process and timeline.

Global Agenda Council
Throughout the spring, the Forum will be accepting nominations of outstanding candidates for Global Agenda Council members for 2010-2011. There are nearly 80 councils that focus on specific global, regional and industry challenges. We are looking for nominees from Asia, Latin America and Africa in particular, but please fill out a nomination form for any qualified candidate at www.weforum.org/GACnominationform.

Resources

Lex Mundi Pro Bono Foundation
The Schwab Foundation has a collaborative arrangement with the Lex Mundi Pro Bono Foundation, an organization that helps social entrepreneurs find and retain free legal assistance through a global network of first-class law firms and lawyers.

Harvard Business School Executive Education Courses
We have a number of full-tuition scholarships for Schwab Foundation Social Entrepreneurs for week-long executive education courses at the Harvard Business School.

The three courses offered this year are:
• Strategic Perspectives in Nonprofit Management (SPNM), 18-24 July 2010
• Performance Measurement for Effective Management of Nonprofit organizations (PMNO), 1-4 June 2010
• Governing for Nonprofit Excellence: Critical Issues for Board Leadership (GNE), 9-12 December 2010
As these courses are designed more so for non-profit organizations, there will be additional executive education opportunities for social business type organizations at Stanford and INSEAD later on in the year. Stay tuned.

Announcements

We are delighted to announce a new Schwab Foundation partnership with Hewlett Packard (http://www.hp.com) and its new Office of Global Social Innovation. HP is a technology company that operates in more than 170 countries around the world and explores how technology and services can improve the way people and companies live and work. In December 2009, HP's new Office of Global Social Innovation was launched with the mission of enabling tomorrow's business and social solutions today.

We anticipate many synergies as we introduce our Social Entrepreneurs community to HP, which houses expertise in technology and marketing among many others.

Upcoming Events
http://www.weforum.org/en/events/index.htm

Search for Outstanding Social Entrepreneurs
The Schwab Foundation is constantly searching for outstanding social entrepreneurs in Africa, Asia, Central and Eastern Europe, Latin America and Middle East and North Africa. If you have any suggestions or if you would like to directly nominate a social entrepreneur do not hesitate to contact us.

Twitter
The Schwab Foundation is now on Twitter, follow us at http://twitter.com/schwabfound.