Sn
the light of the protests going on outside the
WEF's Annual Meeting, part of our group of social
entrepreneurs felt compelled to joining in the
demonstrations. However what struck our group
was the lack of communication about what's happening
indoors to those marching outdoors. After reflection,
Gisele Yitamben, founder and president of ASAFE
(Association pour le Soutien a la Femme Entrepreneur,
Cameroon) says she feels like addressing the
crowd
to show them all that she has had the opportunity
to accomplish by having been engaged in the indoor
negotiations. Indeed, through direct contact
with other African countries governments, as well
as
with CEOs of major firms she is breaking ground
in her field and making very concrete steps towards
bridging the digital divide in Africa..
By
having been invited to the Annual Meeting by Klaus
and Hilde Schwab, our group of 41 social entrepreneurs
were offered a heightened political leverage that is
now allowing them to all progress in their respective
agendas by interacting with those who truly have that
decision power.
Our Indian social Entrepreneurs managed to attract
the attention of Indian Business people who never
before paid any attention to their initiatives.
Mirai Chatterjee, Shobha Arole and Joe Madiath,
as a group of Indian Social Entrepreneurs, were
able to enter in a constructive dialogue with
their fellow countrymen from the business and
the government sectors. And with the help of
Colette Mathur, responsible for the WEF's Indian
Regional meeting, this dialogue will be further
pursued in the WEF's regional Indian meeting,
concrete partnerships are expected to burgeon
out of this.
How the forum worked / was useful for me
Mirai Chatterjee, Self Employed Women's Association,
India
Learned a lot about WTO and it's impact on poor
developing countries. Met several persons in
business, government and academia who are very
much interested in the issues of poor self-employed
women workers. Planned a tripartite meeting in
Delhi for this coming April with business leaders
and government and peoples organizations.
Shobha Arole, Comprehensive Rural Health project,
Jamkhed, India meet and network with the business
community as well as people from other spheres
of work. opportunity for those at the grassroots
to interact and network with people in businesses
and other spheres of life.
The collaboration of the social sphere workers
with those in the economic world should foster
new hope as issues dealing with global poverty
and ill health get addressed in a concerted manner.
My number is 917 567 31 56.
Social Entrepreneurs Welcome Chance to Get Connected
Meet the Social Entrepreneurs provided an opportunity
for social entrepreneurs to meet each other and
introduce their organizations' contribution to
social and economic development. They then discussed
connections in their work on the environment,
health, human rights and civic participation
in stimulating rural economic development and
economic development among the excluded. They
also addressed the needs of today's workers.
Because social entrepreneurship is a relatively
new phenomenon, opportunities for its practitioners
to meet either at the local or international
level are rare, participants noted.
As one group explained, social entrepreneurship
has taken off in the last 20 years as more and
more individuals have begun developing entrepreneurial
solutions to social problems, attacking them
by using skills and approaches often associated
with the business world. The movement has gathered
pace, and in the last five years business schools
such as Harvard, Stanford and INSEAD have developed
programmes in social entrepreneurship.
In their discussions, participants identified
diverse challenges specific to their enterprises.
At the panel on rural economic development, for
instance, one participant noted a major hurdle
is designing viable democratic land reforms in
places where rural land ownership has not yet
reached a crisis point. In India, for example,
the cost of buying small plots for the landless
is affordable, but that type of solution has
received little government interest, the participant
said.
One participant with the group on stimulating
economic development among the excluded said
it is necessary to create a conceptual shift,
turning a culture of self-dependency to one of
self-reliance. That means, as in any business,
social entrepreneurs must think about the market
and how to focus the abilities of economically
excluded persons on the market. The group agreed
that for social entrepreneurs, the key challenges
that remain are acquiring skills for continued
growth, and financing.
Capital is also needed as a way of financing
industry and job creation, a key focus for some
participants at the table which looked at ways
to address the needs of todays workers. Others
suggested that workers need to feel valued and
relevant, with adequate wages, a safe workplace
and the sense that their jobs are linked to their
personal development. Each day a little more
capacity, a little more instruction, a little
more money, as one participant put it.
Security is a term that has been heard often
among policy-makers and leaders but it applies
to workers as well, noted one participant, suggesting
that the term could refer both to job stability
and issues such as factory safety.
In some cases, participants observed, legislation
can answer workers' needs. But though legislation
protecting workers' rights is on the books in
most countries, cultural practices can impede
full enforcement, pointed out a participant from
Bangladesh. As we look around the world where
there are great problems for workers, the problems
tend not to be a question of laws but of enforcement,
a woman participant agreed. Strengthening democratic
institutions will give a crucial boost to enforcement,
she said, but the reality is many governments
lack the resources to make sound labor regulations
a reality. The business community can provide
vital help by adopting voluntary standards and
paying not just a minimum wage but a living wage.
With just an hour for discussion, Quincy Jones,
a member of the Board of Directors of the Schwab
Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship, emphasized
that the group is just getting the conversation
started.
First, the recognition that it is individuals
that always make things happen. And second, that
local talent is the cornerstone in forging our
community destiny.
We need to do better at identifying and fostering
the transformational work carried out by stellar
individuals and their organizations whose efforts
exemplify the most laudable aspects of human
endeavor.
The social entrepreneurs you will read about
in the next few pages have engaged disenfranchised
groups in overcoming the insecurity endemic to
war, poverty and landlessness. They have discovered
what works in what contexts to promote equitable
access to markets and to make economic development
work for all.
Social entrepreneurs to better tap into the
dynamic body of knowledge generated by their
practical approaches to solving social and economic
problems, and to help mobilize stronger support
for their efforts.
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