Social Entrepreneurs of the year

John Elkington

November 24, 2008

India and South Africa had reason to celebrate as The Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship announced its Social Entrepreneurs of the Year.

In India, Arbind Singh, Executive Director, Nidan, is the winner of the Social Entrepreneur of the Year Award 2008. Montek S. Ahluwalia, Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission, India, conferred the award on Singh at the World Economic Forum’s India Economic Summit. In India, the Social Entrepreneur Year of the Award is an initiative of The Nand & Jeet Khemka Foundation and The Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship in collaboration with the UNDP.

Nidan is developing sustainable businesses, cooperatives, trade unions and “people’s institutions” led by the most excluded categories of the poor in Bihar. It has promoted and built 20 independent profit-making ventures governed and owned by the urban poor including waste workers, ragpickers, vegetable vendors, construction labourers, domestic helpers, micro-farmers, street traders and other marginalized occupation groups. As legitimate competitors in the mainstream economy, the collectives negotiate with the government for their rights and entitlements.

In South Africa, the Social Entrepreneur Award was presented to Patrick Schofield, Chief Executive Officer of the Streetwires Artists Collective - which is revolutionizing and formalizing the informal wire and bead market. Schofield was recognized not only for growing the social business of Streetwires and its craftsmen and craftswomen, but by lifting the status of these crafts into art forms, giving them true aesthetic and economic value.

By creating innovative and formal systems of craft development, team cooperative manufacturing, quality control and marketing to local and international audiences, Streetwires ensures the producers a fair price for their art, making it the first fair trade craft organization in South Africa. Through government-certified training programmes, its member wire artists and students trained in outreach projects empower the individuals with qualifications and skills to create their own enterprises in the industry. The Streetwires approach has become best practice for the craft industry in South Africa, with their systems and designs taken up by many in the industry.