Social Enter­prise is a grow­ing move­ment world­wide that is almost unknown in the United States. It pro­poses a new, fourth way to solve the world’s ills. Instead of a gov­ern­ment pro­gram, a non-profit char­ity or a for profit busi­ness, social enter­prise tries to fix social prob­lems while oper­at­ing a sus­tain­able business.

From this com­men­tary that we found at the Philip­pines’ Busi­ness World, Anto­nio G. M. La Viña and Tieza Mica San­tos state the case for social enter­prise and a suc­cess story in the Philip­pines.

Social entre­pre­neur­ship is a model of a value-driven and inno­v­a­tive human activ­ity that involves the mar­riage of social inno­va­tions and busi­ness and entre­pre­neur­ial skills. Social entre­pre­neurs address press­ing social prob­lems in sus­tain­able and socially rel­e­vant ways and mea­sure their suc­cess in terms of social impact rather than mon­e­tary gains. Over the years, social entre­pre­neur­ship has not received as much atten­tion as busi­ness entre­pre­neur­ship and is not as well under­stood. How­ever, more than busi­ness activ­i­ties, social entre­pre­neur­ship has shown a dra­matic impact on the qual­ity of people’s lives.

Today, social entre­pre­neurs are emerg­ing in many parts of the world, both in devel­oped and devel­op­ing nations. In the United King­dom, for instance, social enter­prises are emerg­ing at a faster rate than con­ven­tional, com­mer­cial ven­tures. In Europe alone, more than 3.5 mil­lion jobs are pro­vided by social enter­prises, accord­ing to the 2004 Global Entre­pre­neur­ship Mon­i­tor report.

Social enter­prises build local capac­ity, thereby trans­form­ing the cul­tural con­text. By pro­vid­ing tools and resources to enhance pro­duc­tiv­ity, social enter­prises trans­form the eco­nomic cir­cum­stances of its mem­bers. The empow­er­ing approach gives voice to the mar­gin­al­ized and increases their polit­i­cal influence.

Many social entre­pre­neurs are able to think out of the box and develop strate­gies to address issues that oth­ers fail to see. They have a bet­ter grasp and under­stand­ing of the social con­text in their focus com­mu­ni­ties; that is why they are able to work with greater flex­i­bil­ity and resource­ful­ness, unin­hib­ited by the biases, bureau­cra­cies, and cul­tures that influ­ence tra­di­tional insti­tu­tions and orga­ni­za­tions. Social entre­pre­neurs are chal­lenged by dif­fi­cul­ties, see oppor­tu­ni­ties in prob­lems, and are able to craft poli­cies and sys­tems that fit the need of the social con­text. They are able to fash­ion solu­tions for the greater ben­e­fit of the com­mu­nity rather than their own. They pri­or­i­tize peo­ple and the com­mon good; they con­sider what is real­is­tic, sus­tain­able, and, most impor­tantly, what is eth­i­cal and just.

Social Entre­pre­neur­ship in the Philippines

In the Philip­pines, social entre­pre­neur­ship is gain­ing promi­nent vis­i­bil­ity in both profit and non-profit sec­tors. Many have shown inter­est in the ini­tia­tive; there is now an increas­ing num­ber of social enter­prises emerg­ing in the busi­ness and social devel­op­ment sec­tor. There are social enter­prises that are gain­ing profit, while at the same time serv­ing the ben­e­fit of some com­mu­ni­ties; there are oth­ers that are purely non-profit in nature. Social enter­prises in the Philip­pines are man­aged by indi­vid­u­als or groups of young peo­ple as well as those with an estab­lished record. All of them have seen oppor­tu­ni­ties in prob­lems and have real­ized that the old sys­tems do not offer some­thing new to improve the human con­di­tion in the country.

Among the most promi­nent and suc­cess­ful social enter­prises in the coun­try is Gawad Kalinga (GK), which has not only trans­formed the com­mu­ni­ties it serves through com­mu­nity pro­grams and house-building projects, but has also facil­i­tated the cre­ation of a Fil­ipino soci­ety that rekin­dles the dete­ri­o­rat­ing val­ues of ser­vice and love for the coun­try and fel­low Filipinos.

In fact, we have sort of fallen in love with the con­cept of social busi­ness. It started with read­ing Muham­mad Yunus’ book “Cre­at­ing a World With­out Poverty.” ear­lier this year.

We would like to invite any of you who run or work for a social busi­ness or enter­prise to guess blog here on the Poverty News Blog. If inter­ested please leave a com­ment below with a way to con­tact you.

This is our last post before the Christ­mas hol­i­day. We wish all of our read­ers a happy and safe one, please use the time to strengthen the bonds with your fam­ily and friends. We will post again on Box­ing day!

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