Sam Lakha, Manager, Volans Outreach.
Iran’s Lesson for Social Entrepreneurship
Iran’s Green Revolution, a mass movement in response to possible election fraud, has fascinated the world with its force, speed, and digital fuel. In trying to find some connection between Iran’s mass mobilization towards democracy with the idea of “disruptive” social change catalyzed by social entrepreneurship, I came across Jeff Traxler’s article “Iran’s Green Revolution and Social Entrepreneurship”, which pretty much put me in my place…. and told me to “stop”. Traxler argues that social entrepreneurs tend to link their label to figures of social change, and while empowering, this tendency may be actually more detrimental to the movement.
An excerpt:
- “In recent years, social enterprise experts have clustered around the theory that social entrepreneurs are special, creating the disruptive social innovations that break down suboptimal social equilibria. It’s an inspiring definition to be sure, one that no doubt is a boost to the self-esteem of anyone in the movement. Yet if we look carefully at real-world movements for change, most of it has reflects the work of people who do not self-identify as social entrepreneurs.
- “For example, consider how the protest movement is mobilizing. The core communications media–Twitter, Facebook, blogs, SMS, mobile phones, computers, even the rooftops on which protesters stood to shout–may be tools that social entrepreneurs use, but we (social entrepreneurs)did not create them. The social benefit resulting from social media is at best a positive externality, a second-order consequence derived from someone else’s disruptive innovations. It is also useful to reflect upon the protesters’ organizational tactics. They are not starting social businesses, extending microloans, holding pitch contests or making social investments. Instead, they are taking to the streets and telling anyone who will listen or watch what they want. It is a classic display of political force. Each compelling image from Iran–every impassioned Tweet–is an implicit critique of our naive bubble world where the price of progress is merely a monetary value. If social enterprise is to mature as a movement, we can’t afford to believe our own hype. The more we insist that social entrepreneurship is a unique agent of historic social change, the less effective–and less credible–we become.”
Traxler’s article throws cautions the culture of uniqueness, which has been the basis of the social entrepreneurship movement. The term “social entrepreneurship” itself is associated with “Uncommon Heroes” and “Unreasonable People”, which imply a sense of individuality; Ashoka’s more universal slogan “Everyone a Changemaker” suggests that we all have something to contribute in our own, unique way. Even my own research here at Volans is based on isolating the “unique” variables that make certain social enterprises successful.
While I find this sense of uniqueness essential to the innovation and inspiration that drives the success of social entrepreneurship, I feel Traxler has a powerful point. When does uniqueness become exclusivity? And when does exclusivity actually become constraining to a movement?
As Nathaniel Whittemore of change.org responds,
- “It’s incredibly easy in any young, vibrant movement like our own to quickly enable a hegemony of thought that becomes its own constraining orthodoxy. To allow this to happen to the social entrepreneurship field would be deeply ironic, considering how much of its appeal is to people looking to harness great tools for changing the world from wherever they come.” (Whittemore)
The article doesn’t aim to strip social entrepreneurship of powerful influence in creating social change, but rather reminds the movement of its limits. Iran’s Green Revolution teaches us that as much as we like to break down all social movements into a neat metric of a social enterprise’s success of scalability, sometimes we just can’t. And sometimes to do so would be an arrogant move that proves inauthentic to the change itself and the people involved.
The address for this blog entry is: http://www.volans.com/2009/06/irans-lesson-for-social-entrepreneurship/.
- Emily YaoValue Web poster
As Volans cranks up for its first birthday party on Monday, belatedly because we actually passed that milestone on 1 April, one new adornment for our 2 Bloomsbury Place office is a truly extraordinary poster done by artists at the Value Web to mark my 60th birthday, which I am told we will also be celebrating.
The address for this blog entry is: http://www.volans.com/2009/06/value-web-poster/.
- John ElkingtonNew Partnership to Scale Energy Access in Asia
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has launched an Energy for All Partnership that aims to provide access to modern (renewable) energy to an additional 100 million people in the Asia-Pacific region by 2015.
While the technology exists, the Pathways to Scale work we’ve been conducting with solar entrepreneurs shows that two of the biggest barriers to scaling up access to renewable energy in rural areas are the lack of finance and of distribution networks. The Energy for All Partnership will support an initial phase of six working groups – on domestic biogas, solar lanterns, liquid petroleum gas (LPG), financing for energy services, energy enterprise development, and the Pacific region – that will design and implement programs in high-impact areas such as increasing microfinance lending for energy investments, or replicating business models for private sector service delivery.
This investment portfolio looks promising. Christine Eibs-Singer, CEO of E+Co and co-chair of partnership’s steering committee, emphasized the need for increasing collaboration between existing efforts in order to yield a greater impact. “Many organizations, from the multilateral to the local, are helping bring energy access to vulnerable communities,” she said, and framed the work of this donor-led partnership as leveraging the work of partner organizations for greater impact and wider benefits.
The address for this blog entry is: http://www.volans.com/2009/06/new-partnership-to-scale-energy-access-in-asia/.
- Alejandro LitovskyPhilanthropic Foundations as Catalysts of Scale
Next Wednesday (June 24th) I will be facilitating a workshop designed for the AVINA Foundation at Tällberg, Sweden, on the day before the kick-off of the Tällberg Forum. AVINA’s International Bridge Building efforts are demonstrating the effective role that philanthropic foundations can play in building critical mass to scale up the impact of social and environmental entrepreneurs. AVINA is currently helping some of its partners develop initiatives of continental scale and ambition.These include:
- an “Amazon Regional Alliance”, led by Martín von Hildebrand of the Fundacion Gaia Amazonas, which is bringing together neighboring countries and leaders in a joint conservation effort;
- a “Latin American Climate Platform”, which is linking business, policy-makers and environmentalists throughout the region, facilitated by the Quito-based Fundacion Futuro Latinoamericano;
- a continental network of sustainable cities, led by Oded Grajew, the business leader founder of the Instituto Ethos in Brazil, and one of the founders of the World Social Forum.
The session, with 60+ participants, is bringing these and other leaders together with European and global investors, philanthropic foundations and global action networks to spark strategic relationships and explore the collaborative potential to embark in joint initiatives and create ecosystems for change.
At the meeting, Anders Wikjman, Member of the European Parliament, environmental leader and Vice-President of Tällberg Foundation, will infuse participants with possibilities for creating global cooperation partnerships; and Simon Lyster, Executive Director of Leadership for the Environment and Development (LEAD) will share LEAD’s experience and results in mobilizing global-local networks.
At this year’s Tällberg Forum we are organizing seven other workshops on pathways to scale in partnership with Tällberg’s ‘Rework’ initiative, which I’ll report on separately.
The address for this blog entry is: http://www.volans.com/2009/06/the-role-of-foundations-in-catalyzing-scale/.
- Alejandro LitovskyAsia focuses on Green Growth
“We believe that a strong economy and a clean environment are not mutually exclusive, and that Korea has to take an active part in tackling climate change,” Han Seung-Soo, Prime Minister of the Republic of Korea, told 350 participants from 35 countries at the 18th World Economic Forum on East Asia on 19 June. “Korea recognizes the symbiotic relationship between economic growth and environmental sustainability.” The country has proclaimed low-carbon green growth as its new national vision. “In a nutshell, low-carbon green growth aims to shift the current development paradigm from the fossil-fuel dependent, quantity-oriented growth to a new paradigm of qualitative growth which uses less energy and is more compatible with environmental sustainability.”
In the short term, South Korea has adopted a “Green New Deal” policy to tackle the global economic crisis, a combination of neo-classical supply-side economic policy aimed at creating jobs and revitalizing the economy. For the longer term, Korea will be spending roughly US$ 40 billion over the next four years, which will create 960,000 jobs. A new five-year development plan focused on low-carbon green growth is being finalized, which is perhaps the first of its kind in the world.
“Since the 1960s, Korea has been very successful in industrial development, which was led by five-year industrial plans,” said Kim Hyung-Kook, Chairman, Presidential Committee on Green Growth, Republic of Korea. “We will follow the same model, but under a new and completely new paradigm of low-carbon green growth. In early July this year, we will be seeing the early draft, which will be reported to the president.”
China is also counting on environmental initiatives for future economic growth as well, said Victor L. L. Chu, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, First Eastern Investment Group, Hong Kong SAR. “In terms of energy intensity, which is the amount of energy required to generate one unit of GDP, China has dropped 75% over the last 20 years and is still looking very aggressively to achieve more efficiency. Nearly 40% of China’s 4 trillion renminbi stimulus package is green project related.” He added that “China, Korea and Japan can work together to find some win-win solutions for us in the region and on a global basis.”
Tarek Sultan Al Essa, Chairman and Managing Director, Agility, Kuwait, said the Middle East also has a green vision. “When the government of Abu Dhabi, one of the most well-endowed petroleum-based economies, announces that it’s turning to nuclear power and building a carbon-neutral city from scratch, everybody needs to take a step back and realize the enormity of what that is saying,” he said. His company, which provides logistics and supply chain services, is increasingly getting questions from customers about green programmes. “The next logical step is that [environmental initiatives] will be more and more incorporated into our customers’ decision-making processes.”
Information technology can help accelerate the greening of Asian growth, said Chiaki Ito, Vice-Chairman, Fujitsu, Japan, pointing out that computers can help consumers measure and visualize their energy consumption and carbon emissions in real time and thus do something about them. “But to fundamentally solve global warming, we need not only to advance technology but also to change our mind with a new world view,” he said. “We need to change our life and business styles and not only seek material wealth.”
“Typically, in other downturns, environmental issues had been put aside,” noted Robert Greenhill, Managing Director and Chief Business Officer of the World Economic Forum. “That does not seem to be the case with this downturn. Obviously key policy issues – not only in terms of international commitments but also in pricing and fiscal incentives – are key elements, and it appears that governments from China, Korea and Japan are playing a key part in that.” The corporate sector is also strongly committed and engaged, he said. “This is an opportunity to make even more efficient the market for the exchange of best practices, not only in terms of technologies, but also in terms of know-how and the application of these technologies across different sectors.”
All of the above comes from a WEF media release. For more information, see here. Let’s see how all of these commitments play out in practice! When we founded SustainAbility in 1987, our strap-line was ‘The Green Growth Company’, so it’s nice to see the language in wider use. But launching Green New Deals is one thing, executing them in an efficient, effective and timely fashion quite another.
The address for this blog entry is: http://www.volans.com/2009/06/asia-focuses-on-green-growth/.
- John ElkingtonRotary Youth Social Entrepreneurship Challenge Opens for your ideas
The Rotary Youth Social Entrepreneurship Challenge 2009 (RYSEC 2009) opens for submissions from Singapore-based teams TODAY. RYSEC is organised by the Rotary Club of Singapore, SYINC and Volans.
Teams of 2-5 budding young social entrepreneurs (between the age of 19-30) are invited to apply, with cash prizes being awarded as well as an all-expenses paid week-long social entrepreneurship study trip to Cambodia. For more details on the competition, please go to http://www.rysec.sg.
The address for this blog entry is: http://www.volans.com/2009/06/rotary-youth-social-entrepreneurship-challenges-opens-for-your-ideas/.
- Kevin TeoSteroids revised: The economic stimulus package for renewables
A central concern to our work on Pathways to Scale is the extent to which governments are supporting the scaling up of renewable energy solutions, especially as they roll out Economic Stimulus Packages to deal with the economic downturn.
On June 17th you can join a webinar co-hosted by the American Council on Renewable Energy (ACORE), which will provide a solid base of information and stock-taking on how the US economic stimulus package provides opportunities to scale up renewable energy solutions. The US Administration forecasts 70% of stimulus funding will be spent by June 2010.
The address for this blog entry is: http://www.volans.com/2009/06/steroids-revised-the-economic-stimulus-package-for-renewables/.
- Alejandro LitovskySchwab Foundation announces the winners of the 2009 Africa Regional Social Entrepreneurs
The Schwab Foundation has recognized three new social entrepreneurs with significant impact in the region as winners of the Africa Regional Social Entrepreneurs Award for 2009. David Kuria, Chief Executive Officer, Ecotact, Kenya; Patrick Schofield, Chief Executive Officer, Streetwires Artists Collective, South Africa; Mitchell J. Besser and Gene Falk, Co-Founders of mothers2mothers, active in Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Rwanda, South Africa, Swaziland and Zambia, will join other leading social entrepreneurs at the World Economic Forum on Africa, on 10-12 June 2009. Click here for profiles of the winners
This group of social entrepreneurs from across the African continent as well as others from Europe and Latin America will be active participants in the discussions at the forthcoming meeting. Their primary focus is not maximizing profit, but maximizing benefits for society and the environment. They develop innovative business models in energy efficiencies, education, waste management, health, education, youth and rural development, with a vision of large-scale impact.
The address for this blog entry is: http://www.volans.com/2009/06/schwab-foundation-announces-the-winners-of-the-2009-africa-regional-social-entrepreneurs/.
- Kevin TeoAfrican social entrepreneurs honoured
The Schwab Foundation has recognized three new social entrepreneurs with significant impact in the region as winners of the Africa Regional Social Entrepreneurs Award for 2009. David Kuria, Chief Executive Officer, Ecotact, Kenya; Patrick Schofield, Chief Executive Officer, Streetwires Artists Collective, South Africa; Mitchell J. Besser and Gene Falk, Co-Founders of mothers2mothers, active in Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Rwanda, South Africa, Swaziland and Zambia, will join other leading social entrepreneurs at the World Economic Forum on Africa, on 10-12 June 2009. mothers2mothers, incidentally, was one of the Phoenix 50 list Volans covered in The Phoenix Economy.
“This group of social entrepreneurs from across the African continent as well as others from Europe and Latin America will be active participants in the discussions at the forthcoming meeting,” the Foundation notes. “Their primary focus is not maximizing profit, but maximizing benefits for society and the environment. They develop innovative business models in energy efficiencies, education, waste management, health, education, youth and rural development, with a vision of large-scale impact.”
“This crisis teaches us that we need to refocus the economy on serving society. It is these social entrepreneurs who show us the way to a sustainable future,” said Professor Klaus Schwab, Founder and Executive Chairman, World Economic Forum, and Founder, Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship. Social entrepreneurs emphasize long-term sustainability instead of short-term gains. Their primary focus is to maximize benefits for society and the environment by implementing innovative approaches to the key challenges the world is facing. They operate social businesses or organizations that are a mixture of non-profits and for-profits.
The winners of the Social Entrepreneur Award for Africa 2009 will be presented with their awards by the Chairperson and Co-Founder of the Schwab Foundation, Mrs Hilde Schwab, at the Opening Plenary of the Africa meeting on 10 June 2009, in the presence of Jacob Zuma, President of South Africa; Kofi Annan, Secretary-General, United Nations (1997-2006); and Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Managing Director, World Bank, Washington DC.
The address for this blog entry is: http://www.volans.com/2009/06/african-social-entrepreneurs-honoured/.
- John ElkingtonLessons from the Mafia
My first month of research has revolved around reading the newspaper….yes life is indeed hard!
One story that sparked my interest in particular (primarily because I have watched the God Father too many times) was in the FT in early May http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/b69fdf3a-38d1-11de-8cfe-00144feabdc0.html .
The Italian police have begun a large scale investigation into corruption in the renewables sector, they believe that the Mafia have been offering money and support to local officials in Sicily in return for wind farm construction contracts. Now, the wind farms in question are, unsurprisingly, of poor quality and infact several do not even produce electricity. However I think that a positive message can be gleaned….
Historically the Mafia have capitalised on highly luctrative “industries”; protection rackets in the lemon groves of Palermo, alcohol production and distribution during the prohibition and most recently cocaine. Therefore it seems fair to assume that there is a lot of money to be made in wind and as a result legal farm construction could bolster the manufacturing and construction sector of an economy. Therefore Mr Darling can be safe in the knowledge that his (or our) investment of £525 million was directed at the right sector.
The address for this blog entry is: http://www.volans.com/2009/06/lessons-from-the-mafia/.
- Rosemary ReeveWORLD ENVIRONMENT DAY
The Volans team wishes you a happy World Environment Day, an occasion launched by the fledgling United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) in 1972. Much progress has been made in recent decades, but some of the underlying trends are profoundly worrying—as spotlighted, for example, by the work of the Global Footprint Network, one of Volans’ Phoenix 50 organisations .
Still, WED brings some happy memories to mind: seventeen years later, on World Environment Day 1989, John Elkington and Julia Hailes were elected to the UN Global 500 Roll of Honour for their work with SustainAbility, founded in 1987, and the green consumer agenda, with The Green Consumer Guide first published in 1988. Around the same time, too, John served on the International Board of Earth Day 1990, the first to reach beyond the USA and go global.
Earlier this year, during the Business for the Environment (B4E) summit in Paris, John took part in the ceremony in Paris where UNEP announced the latest round of Champions of the Earth, the successor to the Global 500, where people like Yann Arthus-Bertrand and Janine Benyus were celebrated.
Champions of the Earth, 2009: Yann Arthus-Bertrand and Janine Benyus
Over more than 25 years, years John has worked a good deal with UNEP, for example helping them with 1984’s World Industry Conference on Environmental Management (WICEM), where he coined the term environmental excellence—which has since enjoyed a long and successful run. From the early 1990s to date, UNEP has been a consistent partner in work SustainAbility has done on stakeholder engagement, sustainability reporting and supply chain management—and, in the past year, in work done by Volans which resulted in The Phoenix Economy. We are now in negotiation in terms of a significant extension of that work, whose details we hope to be able to announce soon.
Commemorated yearly on June 5th, WED sees the United Nations spotlighting efforts to boost worldwide awareness of the environment and encourage political attention and action. The agenda is to:
· Give a human face to environmental issues;
· Empower people to become active agents of sustainable and equitable development;
· Promote an understanding that communities are pivotal to changing attitudes towards environmental issues;
· Advocate partnership which will ensure all nations and peoples enjoy a safer and more prosperous future.
Climate change is the overarching theme this year, reflecting the urgency for nations to agree on a new deal at the crucial climate convention meeting in Copenhagen some 180 days from now, plus the links with overcoming poverty and improved management of forests. And this is an area where Volans, in the wake of our participation in the World Business Summit on Climate Change in Copenhagen, is also now working up an exciting pair of projects, to be announced during the summer.
The address for this blog entry is: http://www.volans.com/2009/06/world-environment-day/.
- Sam LakhaLooking for Young Social Entrepreneurs
The Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship is searching for young social entrepreneurs to include in the World Economic Forum’s Young Global Leaders Forum. The World Economic Forum is committed to ensuring that 10% of the next incoming members of the group of Young Global Leaders are social entrepreneurs. Therefore, we are providing a group of approximately 15 social entrepreneurs under the age of 40 a unique opportunity to become members of the community of Young Global Leaders. The selected social entrepreneurs are part of a peer network that can open doors in the business, political and academic fields, help enter new markets and identify investors, among many other opportunities. Young Global Leaders are invited to the events of the World Economic Forum.
Last year, more than a quarter of all Social Entrepreneur Young Global Leaders came from nominators like you, and we are keen on building upon this success. We are now looking for social entrepreneurs for the Young Global Leaders network and would be delighted to receive your suitable suggestions. While they should be under 40 years of age, they should nevertheless already have achieved a significant impact and should have the potential to significantly scale further.
Current and alumni Social Entrepreneur Young Global Leaders include:
- Vikram Akula, Founder, SKS Microfinance, India
- Rodrigo Baggio, Founder, CDI, Brazil
- Ganhuyag Hutagt, Chief Executive Officer, Xac Bank, Mongolia
- Linda Rottenberg, Co-Founder, Endeavor, USA
- Premal Shah, President, Kiva.org, USA
Please send any suggestions to info@schwabfound.org by Wednesday 17 June 2009.
The address for this blog entry is: http://www.volans.com/2009/06/looking-for-young-social-entrepreneurs/.
- John Elkington