A recent report by Social Enterprise UK and the British Council, Think Global: Trade Social (pdf), claims that social enterprise has an important role to play in delivering the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. It’s certainly true that social enterprise has mushroomed in the UK over the past decade, buoyed by increasing understanding in the public sector, a range of supportive intermediaries, and an increasingly sophisticated social finance offer. But can social enterprise really make a significant contribution to combatting poverty and inequality in areas of the world where the environment for social entrepreneurs is considerably less favourable?
The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) presents one of the most challenging environments for social enterprise in the world. There are low levels of awareness of social enterprise; low levels of innovation and entrepreneurship; regional instability; an under-developed voluntary sector; and a lack of appropriate legal structures, finance, and supportive legislation. And yet despite all this there are some impressive examples of social enterprise already tackling the multiplicity of problems faced by the region.
Educall sells professional tutoring services which goes toward tutoring orphans and other disadvantaged children. Skills Motion helps to reduce the high levels of unemployment amongst graduates in the region through an online platform. Gebraa creates employment for women using crafts and skills. The Anou supports artisans to establish equal access to the free market, and SheFighter teaches self-defence to combat the high levels of violence against women and girls, particularly in refugee camps.
At the recent MENA Social Enterprise Forum run by the British Council and World Bank, these social enterprises were joined by a host of others from across the region, along with policymakers, NGOs and a range of social enterprise professionals. The goal was to start a conversation to see how MENA can build on this success, learn from developments in other parts of the world, and develop an even more vibrant and robust social enterprise sector.
The debate was passionate, and by the end of the two days a range of disparate views was starting to coalesce into the beginnings of a social enterprise strategy for MENA. The sector needs to agree a working definition of social enterprise to aid understanding and awareness. More research needs to be done into the current social enterprise activity in the region, and into proving the impact of social enterprise approaches in different parts of the world. A culture of innovation and entrepreneurship needs to be fostered through the education system, through incubators and outreach programmes. And capacity building needs to be stepped up for existing and emerging social enterprises, and for the NGO sector.
The governments in MENA need to play their part too. They can use their taxation systems to reward social and environmental good and penalise harm; they can incorporate social clauses into their procurement and government spending programmes; they can ensure social entrepreneurship, business skills and social impact are embedded in their education systems; and they can create legislation and policies that provide a favourable framework and environment for social enterprises to flourish, including appropriate legal structures.
International organisations such as the World Bank and the British Council have a crucial role to play in catalysing the development of social enterprise in the region: supporting governments, supporting social enterprises themselves, and by brokering a trusted relationship between governments, private and third sectors. With their support social enterprise can indeed make an increasingly important contribution to combatting poverty and inequality in MENA and throughout the world.
About the author:
Mark Richardson is an award-winning social entrepreneur and consultant with extensive expertise in social enterprise, social replication and impact measurement. As director of social enterprise at Bangor University, he launched and managed a Masters programme in Social Enterprise and is now leading the development of a three million Euro social enterprise accelerator.
He has written highly regarded reports on social enterprise and social investment for, among others, Big Society Capital, the National Housing Federation, and Big Lottery. He co-wrote the British Council’s vision paper “What Will Social Enterprise Look Like in Europe by 2020”, which continues to spark debate and discussion, and his comprehensive summary of social enterprise in the UK is used by policy makers and practitioners around the world.
Mark has worked with over a hundred social enterprises on business planning, sustainability, governance and legal structure. And through his pioneering work on scale and replication is considered one of the world’s leading experts on social franchising. In 2015 he was made an honorary research fellow at Bangor University and sits on the board of a multi-million-pound social enterprise, North Wales Housing Association, leading on impact measurement.
Content on this page is paid for and provided by the British Council, sponsor of the international social enterprise hub
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