Inclusive Business Creation – Good Practice Compendium

Today we present to you a report from the OECD’s Local Economic and Employment Development Programme (LEED) provides innovative ideas and practical solutions for how to build inclusive and sustainable communities with quality jobs for all. This series explores how national and local governments can promote local development, leveraging the social economy, entrepreneurship, employment and skills, and specific sectors such as culture.

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Inclusive Business Creation

Good Practice Compendium

This compendium contains 20 case studies of public programmes in European countries that are successfully supporting business creation by people from disadvantaged and under-represented groups in entrepreneurship. The populations targeted by these programmes include youth, women, seniors, the unemployed, immigrants, ethnic minorities and people with disabilities. Each programme description details the programme’s activities and approach, assesses the challenges faced in development and implementation, and offers tips for successful transfer to other contexts.

Public policy actions at national, regional and local levels can make an important contribution to economic growth and social inclusion by promoting business creation and self-employment by people who otherwise could remain outside of the mainstream of entrepreneurship. This compendium demonstrates that workable approaches exist and can help policymakers learn from each other’s experiences to achieve widespread results.

https://doi.org/10.1787/9789264251496-en  9789264251496 (PDF) 9789264257504 (EPUB)

Authors: OECD and European Union

Access to the full reading material here: 9789264251496-en

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11 Strategies For Activating People As Contributors In Creating Social Impact – The Unlonely Planet 2022 Study

BACKGROUND INFORMATION ABOUT ASHOKA

Ashoka identifies and supports the world’s leading social entrepreneurs, learns from the patterns in their innovations, and mobilizes a global community that embraces these new frameworks to build an “everyone a changemaker world.” Read about Ashoka’s theory of change for this historic moment, the new inequality, and the new framework that they require.

ABOUT THIS REPORT

This report presents our findings and is organized in two parts. Part I outlines the strategies Fellows use to build an Everyone a Changemaker™ world. Part II outlines the strategies Ashoka uses to support Fellows’ lifelong commitment to changemaking and efforts to realize the Everyone a Changemaker™ vision. Besides other insightful information and facts about the ways how social entrepreneurs can change the world, this study has drawn out the 11 “how-tos” used by Ashoka Fellows to activate people as contributors and solution-providers in their communities. These are a great help to understanding how the social impact works.

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11 STRATEGIES FOR ACTIVATING PEOPLE AS CONTRIBUTORS IN CREATING SOCIAL IMPACT

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Inspire individuals to become changemakers 

Strategy 1: Create opportunities for many individuals to contribute. In addition to creating employment (95% of Ashoka Fellows) and volunteer opportunities (87%), many Fellows recognize that it is time for a fundamental shift especially in the role of young people. 89% of Fellows are putting young people in charge of leading change within their organizations.

Strategy 2: Encourage individuals to believe in their own capacity. By encouraging problem-solving on even a small scale, Ashoka Fellows expand others’ sense of agency. Giving a person the opportunity to take action and make a difference–no matter how small–sets in motion a long-term commitment to changemaking.

Strategy 3: Redefine “weaknesses” as strengths. Interview data showed that Ashoka Fellows take stock of people’s skills and invite them to put these to good use. Further, they look at what broader society may perceive as weakness and find strength, leveraging diverse experiences or skills to drive positive change.

Strategy 4: Support changemaker identity development. Ashoka Fellows identity as changemakers sustains their commitment to systems-change work. This identity benefits their communities and professional endeavors as well as their personal development and quality of life. Wanting this for those around them, Ashoka Fellows help others to develop changemaker identities.

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Collaborate to engage more changemakers 

Strategy 5: Build multiplier partnerships. Ashoka Fellows build partnerships to generate solutions, impact, and changemakers. They work with others toward a shared vision. They often relinquish control and ownership of their ideas to see them spread as far as possible: 82% of Ashoka Fellows have had their innovations replicated by others (through strategic partnerships, open sourcing or licensing, among other methods). 61% replicated within their country, and 42% at an international level.

Strategy 6: Create space for the community’s voice. Ashoka Fellows see community members not as beneficiaries, but as experts and decision-makers. As such, they create space for community members to develop solutions and voice their plans for action. They present ideas and ask for input from a range of stakeholders or invite others to partner in implementing solutions.

Strategy 7: Engage individuals everywhere. Interview data show that Fellows strategically target community members who are beyond the inner circle of allies. By targeting “unlikely allies,” Fellows can often engage those who may not normally encounter a specific social issue, but who can meaningfully contribute to positive social change.

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Change systems to support all changemakers 

Strategy 8: Shift policies and market systems. Many institutions either by design or inadvertently prevent large portions of society from reaching their full potential. Ashoka Fellows shift systems and restructure institutions to operate in service of the collective good and provide many more people the freedom and support to contribute. They do this by changing policies of large companies or industries (51%), encouraging them to include previously excluded communities (52%), or creating value for a product or service where it didn’t exist before (51%). At the legislative level, 63% of Ashoka Fellows changed or influenced government policy, while 66% have advised policymakers as experts.

Strategy 9: Influence societal mindsets or cultural norms. By influencing societal mindsets and cultural norms, they help others see and act in accordance with social changes that benefit all. Fellows do this by encouraging people to think differently (88%), through campaigns (43%), or through programs (21%).

Strategy 10: Foster supportive environments that enable changemaking. Fellows invest their energy in the creation of communities where individuals feel psychologically and physically safe, cared for and supported. They do this within the walls of the organizations, but also wherever they convene the broader community in public spaces from classrooms to community squares. In doing so, individuals feel comfortable to share their ideas, work with others, and build something new.

Strategy 11: Build ecosystems that sustain changemaking. Interview data show that Fellows bring together funders, businesses, governments, civil society organizations, media companies, and universities to reduce barriers that blunt agency and prevent individuals from engaging in changemaking. By banding together, they can exponentially increase their potential to address issues that perpetuate systemic inequality.

DOWNLOAD THE REPORT HERE

This publication has been prepared within SENBS project No. 2020- 1-EE01-KA204-077999. The content of this publication is the sole responsibility of the project coordinator and may not always reflect the views of the European Commission or the National Agency.

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The Social Economy, the Future of Europe The Social Economy, the Future of Europe – report from the meeting during the Frensh Presidency of the Council of EU

The social and solidarity economy (SSE) is one of the pillars on which the European Union intends to build its resilience, an objective affirmed by the European Commission on 9 December 2021, when it presented a new action plan on the social economy. European Ministers responsible for the Social Economy will meet in Paris on 17 February 2022 to take this momentum to the next level.

Europe’s social economy sector employs over 13 million people at some 3 million entities. Spanning a diverse range of legal forms, from non-profits to foundations, to cooperatives, mutual benefit societies (a specific type of collective insurance) and social enterprises, this sector prioritises social impact over financial profit.

Representing up to 10% of GDP in countries such as France, Italy and Spain, the social economy offers a forward-looking solution to today’s climate and social challenges, which is why the European Commission has designated it as one of 14 industrial ecosystems for bolstering Europe’s resilience.

Yet the social economy’s job-creation and social-value-added potential is not being fully tapped into, and many disparities exist from one EU country to another.

For this reason, in December 2021, the European Commission published an action plan to spur the social economy’s further development and unlock its potential for job creation and social connectedness – 10 years after it launched the Social Business Initiative, its first action plan to support the development of social enterprises in Europe, which significantly increased their visibility.

Olivia Grégoire, French Minister of State for the Social, Solidarity and Responsible Economy, will bring together EU Ministers responsible for the Social Economy for an informal ministerial conference.

The items on the agenda of the ministerial conference include:

  • Recognising EU countries’ diverse range of traditions, practices and legal systems regarding the social economy in Europe and the need for work to draw on common features
  • Identifying social economy entities and improving their access to funding instruments, both at the national and EU level
  • Measuring social impact as an effective way of ensuring better analysis and increased public authority support for the social and solidarity economy

This conference presents a prime opportunity to examine the resources that can be marshalled and the next steps to take to help the EU strengthen Europe’s social economy.

The work produced by the conference will feed into discussions led by the EU’s Employment, Social Policy, Health and Consumer Affairs Council (EPSCO), a Council of Minister’s formation. Additionally, the work will inform the Commission’s decision-making with regard to issuing a formal recommendation on the social economy to EPSCO Council Ministers by 2023.

2.8 million –> entities in the social economy in Europe

13 million –> people working in the social economy in Europe.

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This publication has been prepared within INDIGISE project. The content of this publication is the sole responsibility of the project coordinator and may not always reflect the views of the European Commission or the National Agency.

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Financing the social economy in Poland – Updated case study April 2021

European Commission, together with the European Investment Bank and FI.Compas has prepared the latest version of the report presenting the financial landscape for social economy actors in Poland.

From the Fi.Compass website:

Financial instruments under ESF have long been supporting Social Economy Enterprises in Poland. This updated case study focuses on the National Fund for Social Entrepreneurship, showing its development over two programming periods, and its continued importance in providing affordable finance and soft support to the Polish social economy. Furthermore, the updated case study reports on the fast adaptation of the financial instrument in the wake of the Covid-19 outbreak, and its consequent ability to respond to changing needs.

 

Download it directly from the website: https://www.fi-compass.eu/publication/case-studies/financing-social-economy-poland 

 

This publication has been prepared within SENBS project No. 2020- 1-EE01-KA204-077999. The content of this publication is the sole responsibility of the project coordinator and may not always reflect the views of the European Commission or the National Agency.

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Regional Strategies for the Social Economy – OECD Report with examples from France, Spain, Sweden and Poland

This paper by OECD  https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/industry-and-services/regional-strategies-for-the-social-economy_76995b39-en explores the linkages between regional strategies for the social economy and regional development in four EU countries: France, Spain, Sweden and Poland. It provides a comparative perspective of regional strategies for the social economy (Section 1), based on i) the level of recognition of the social economy itself, ii) multi-level governance arrangements, iii) the regional strategic priority given to the social economy and iv) financial resources available for regional strategies. It gives examples of strategies for the social economy in selected regions in the four countries to document the diversity of practice (Section 2). It outlines conclusions and policy orientations (Section 3) to help reinforce the positive impact of regional strategies for the social economy on regional development.

 

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This publication has been prepared within INDIGISE project. The content of this publication is the sole responsibility of the project coordinator and may not always reflect the views of the European Commission or the National Agency.