Archive for November, 2009

We are happy to be teaming up as a media partner with the Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship at Oxford’s Said Business School for their inaugural Skoll: Emerge. Our friend, Alexis Ettinger, Head of Strategy and Marketing at the Skoll Centre, reports.

I need to be honest.  We’re hosting a pretty big event here tomorrow, and I’m not even that excited.

It’s not what you think. It’s not that it’s not going to be great (because trust me, it is). And it’s not that Skoll: Emerge, the first and only student conference on social entrepreneurship in the UK, isn’t long overdue or desperately needed (because trust me, it is).  And it’s not like we don’t have an amazing line up of global practitioners who are going to inspire and teach and mobilize (because trust me, they are).

So why so somber?

Well, it’s just that tomorrow isn’t what excites me –it’s what’s going to unfold the day after.  And the month after. And five years down the road.

Skoll: Emerge (and all student conferences for that matter) is where we plant the seed in emerging leaders’ minds about what they are capable of achieving through entrepreneurship.  It’s just the spark – the fuel that greases the engine of change.  I’m not underestimating the power of that moment (You know what I’m talking about- The epiphany moment that tickles every nerve in your body to leap out and say “Yes! Yes! This is what I’m passionate about!”).

It’s just that I can’t wait until the real change starts to happen.  But that’s just my impatience talking. So,  first what’s happening here in Oxford at the Said Business School:  We’ve worked with Student Hubs to gather 300 students from across the UK to connect and share their interest using entrepreneurship for social and environmental impact.  We’ve asked some of our favorite entrepreneurs from across the globe (including Rodriggo Baggio, Caroline Casey, Laila Iskandar Kamel, and Naif Al  Mutawa,) to share their stories.  We’ve gathering leading experts in social finance, pioneers in the art of intrapreneurship, and how-to gurus of building social enterprises.   We’ve teamed up with UnLtd and Barclays Capital to invest £15,000 in the best new social venture ideas and to provide students support throughout the year to turn them into reality.   And we’ve deliberately made this about students, for students, by students.

What’s amazing to me is where these students are coming from.  And I don’t mean in the geographical sense (although that is pretty spectacular as well: 48 different countries in this year’s MBA class);  I mean in terms of their professional backgrounds.  We have medical doctors, looking to change entire health systems.  We have development economists, creating more effective and efficient ways to address poverty.  We have corporate leaders, no longer content with seeking profit without principle. We have teachers, wanting to revolutionize the way we learn.   We have designers, bringing their craft to create more inclusive and sustainable public services.  The list goes on and on.

This is a remarkable trend – the increasing breadth and diversity of those affected and inspired by the social entrepreneurship movement.  The challenge for us, then, is to ensure that the broad rallying cry of social entrepreneurship is more than just talk and serves as a core pillar in the career pathways of these emerging leaders.   I don’t doubt their enthusiasm; I don’t fear that their commitment will fade.  But I do worry that the structures and systems currently in place now will not provide (and could even undermine) the real supports they need going forth.  What would you do, faced with £50,000+ in student debt – if a safe and secure job offer came your way? How would you advise turning down temptation when the alternative – lack of funding, lack of resources, lack of understanding – seems so daunting?  How would you ensure that once the safe walls of scholarship come tumbling down, that our young leaders have the same freedom and boldness to innovate?

I’m hoping that Skoll: Emerge stirs this conversation.  And that it proves to be an electrifying first spark for some participants and a significant catalyst for others.    Let’s just ensure we don’t leave that spark to burn out after the conference closes.

Follow Skoll: Emerge Conference on Twitter at #emerge09 from 9am-7pm GMT, Sunday November 29th.

Today, more companies than ever before recognize the significance and value of integrating Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) into their business operations and decision-making processes. A global phenomena, India has only recently “signed on” to this mantra. As a result, the “if—then” concept of “Earn Respect – Grow More” needs to be incorporated into the mission statements of all Indian companies.

This is what the 1st Asian CSR Congress to be held in Mumbai on December 10 – 11, 2009 aims to do – to encourage the inclusion of CSR on the agendas of Indian corporations.

Working in the social enterprise sector, we at Beyond Profit often feel that providing “social good” should be more than simply a “wing” of a business. Social enterprise seeks to take CSR one step further – to make the “social” part of the core competency and core offering of a business. In a way, it is CSR 2.0.

In an ideal world, all businesses would be social in nature, but, alas, we do not live in this ideal world. Incorporating CSR into a company plan is the first step in approaching this ideal scenario.  The Asian CSR Congress is a concrete way to bring together like minded individuals and companies to talk about best practices, linking core competencies to a company’s CSR focus, and strategies to create value.

The event will include case studies from India and other Asian countries on partnership relations, employee volunteerism, linking market with CSR, and allied subjects.  To know more or to register for the event, contact Kajari Mukherjee or Arpita Bhattacharya.

Jerryanne Heath is the CEO and Founder of ConceptLink Consulting, a firm which helps US and international social-mission organizations connect with their stakeholders through various event management and communications strategies.  She is also co-chair of the Africa Social Enterprise Forum.

A recent experience at Walt Disney World opened my eyes to a challenge for social entrepreneurs in the developing world – the challenge of maintaining authenticity. Two weeks ago, some friends and I dined at Boma – Flavors of Africa, a restaurant at Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge in Orlando, Florida. I was excited to try the food after reading BOMA’s website describing the restaurant as:

Designed to resemble an African marketplace, the exotic restaurant serves dishes inspired by the varied flavors and seasonal dishes of over 50 African countries, from the coast of the Mediterranean to the Indian Ocean.

The lodge and restaurant were majestically designed, as only Disney could conceive. Everything was larger than life, including the portions – dinner was an endless buffet. The high ceilings mimicked a traditional thatched roof, draped in kente and batik cloths. African carvings and statues from various regions adorned the lounge and hallways. Sprinklings of Swahili words enhanced the African feel.

Although the décor was beautiful and the food was delicious, the menu was not African! Despite all of the Swahili words used to create the ambience, there was little representation on the menu from East or Central Africa, where Swahili is largely spoken. The buffet consisted of Western dishes including macaroni and cheese and chocolate mousse. Some dishes had African-inspired names, but the food was inauthentic. I was pleased to find Fufu on the menu but felt hoodwinked after tasting it! Fufu, a staple food of West and Central Africa, is a thick paste usually made by boiling cassava or yams, pounding with a mortar and pestle and shaping into balls of dough. Having previously eaten Fufu in Ghana, I knew immediately that Boma’s dish – mushy sweet potatoes, spiced with coriander and cinnamon – was not the real thing.

I am not a food critic. But this experience inspired me to consider the dangerous similarities between Disney offering an American audience a taste of Africa and social enterprises presenting the communities they serve. Do most social entrepreneurs represent the communities they serve accurately? Or do they present a mushy, cinnamon-spiced view to those who don’t know any better? It is easy to package photos of the starving poor or of smiling children in a distant land to make the information easily digestible to a Western audience. But in the process, aren’t social enterprises doing these communities a disservice?

Boma offers the most popular dining experience at Disney. If the restaurant served traditional African foods, would it have achieved the same level of popularity? And if social entrepreneurs presented an unfiltered view of their experiences and the communities they serve, do you think Western foundations and supporters would still be interested?

I believe social entrepreneurs, particularly those impacting the developing world, should maintain the authenticity of the communities they serve by enabling these communities to speak for themselves. Interview a beneficiary or customer for your next case study. Capture a normal day in his or her life and put that story on YouTube instead of your own. In addition to your successes, share the failures or challenges you’ve faced and lessons learned along the way. These steps can help build credibility with, and garner the support of, those who “know better”.

Photograph by Raju Singh, Blind With Camera

Beyond Profit is very happy to collaborate with Inclusive Planet, a great social enterprise that is creating innovative products and services for the differently-abled and, in the process, building India’s first online community and marketplace for the differently-abled. In our first guest contribution to the Inclusive Planet blog, we draw attention to three organizations that have moved away from a victim-centric view of disability by productively employing persons with disabilities. Hats off to the tireless efforts of the Diya Foundation, Blind with Camera, and EnAble India.

Disability is a global issue. Not a regional issue. Not a national issue. But a global issue. That said, in many countries, it does not get the attention that it deserves. There are a multitude of reasons: people are uncomfortable confronting the realities of disability, disability is considered socially taboo, there exists generalized societal apathy towards disability.

As a result, the differently-abled are ostracized, especially in India. They are prohibited from venturing into the public eye. From making a living. From living a life of dignity. They are treated as surplus citizens. They are seen as incapable of being contributing and productive members of society.

Social enterprise has the capability of employing the differently-abled so that they too can earn a livelihood. The following organizations are dedicated to this very mission.

• Diya Foundation – Started in 1999, Diya Foundation is a vocational training center which provides training and, more importantly, employment to adults who are mentally challenged as well as others who are differently-abled physically. Started as a bridge to smooth the transition from school to work, Diya currently employs four physically challenged staff, six abled staff, and 21 mentally challenged trainees. This year for Diwali, Diya Foundation sold delicious chocolates and colorful diyas.
• Blind With Camera – An initiative of the Beyond Sight Foundation, a not-for-profit organization prompting the art of photography in people with visual impairment, Blind With Camera provides a platform for the visually impaired to share their imagination and their point-of-view of the visual world and speak out about their unique experience, feelings, challenges, concerns and hopes. Taking photographs empower the visually disabled, provide them earning opportunities, and facilitate their social inclusion. It demystifies the polarity between blindness and visual expression and helps to sensitize people, spread awareness, and correct public perception of visual impairment.
• EnAble India – Working for the economic empowerment of the differently-abled, EnAble India empowers and ensures employment for the differently-abled. The organization ensures that the differently-abled become part of the workforce through supplemental education, extensive training and by providing assisting aids designed for daily living, education, and for the work place. Consequently, EnAble India is helping to build the next generation of differently-abled, transforming them into confident, assertive, smart, and independent people. In fact, in October 2008 in Bangalore, EnAble India even organized a job fair exclusively for the differently-abled. At the end of the fair Sunday, 70 people with low vision or hearing impairment or mild mental retardation and other physical disabilities went back home with appointment letters as housekeepers, helpers, office assistants, and other positions in leading corporate houses. Slowly but surely, the differently-abled are being accepted into the mainstream!

These three organizations are very much moving away from a victim centric view of disability. They are creating opportunities. They are dispelling sympathy and apathy towards the differently-abled. They are encouraging the families of differently-abled persons and society at large to create a strong supportive environment for people with disabilities to helping them grow into confident, independent, and productive individuals.

You practically have to be born with a halo and wings in order to meet the currently accepted characterization of a “social entrepreneur.” By setting the bar so high, are we actually preventing the entry of a diverse set of changemakers? Gabriel Brodbar, Director of the Catherine B. Reynolds Foundation Program in Social Entrepreneurship at the Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service at New York University, offers a new framework for thinking about the roles of social changemakers.

Social entrepreneurship is allergic to definitions. Like Associate Justice Potter Stewart’s1 take on obscenity, many of us can’t describe social entrepreneurship, but we know it when we see it. While the popularity of social entrepreneurship as a movement continues to grow with an ever increasing number of blogs, books, magazines, university-based programs, and conferences claiming the title, the “field” seems no closer to understanding who social entrepreneurs really are and how social entrepreneurship happens than when the term first came into use in the 1960’s.2 A more rigorous understanding is needed if it is to fulfill its promise of being the infinitely more effective paradigm for solving some of the world’s most intractable social, economic, and environmental problems.

So what do we know? We all know that social entrepreneurs want to change the world for the better and ideally in sustainable and scalable ways. They seek to “cure” the root causes of social problems instead of masking the symptoms. They spur the disruptive innovations that ultimately lead to new and better equilibriums. But beyond that, there is little agreement.

The current debate on who is a social entrepreneur seems broadly divided into inclusive and exclusive camps. In the former, there are people like Ashoka Founder Bill Drayton, who argues there is one social entrepreneur for every ten million people (which would leave a place like Milwaukee, Wisconsin with slightly less than half of a social entrepreneur). Organizations like Echoing Green and the Draper Richards Foundation, like Ashoka, do a wonderful job seeking out these visionary individuals and supporting them as they pursue their pattern-breaking ideas. Roger Martin and Sally Osberg make a great case for this camp in their 2007 piece “Social Entrepreneurship: The Case for Definition”3 as has David Bornstein in How To Change the World4 and John Elkington and Pamela Hartigan in The Power of Unreasonable People.5 » Continue reading “Not Everyone’s a Social Entrepreneur”

A scene from our Big Squat

Last Thursday was World Toilet Day, an international day to recognize the need for proper sanitation around the world. Upon encouragement from our friends at the World Toilet Organization, the Beyond Profit team organized an event—a Big Squat—a public demonstration of sorts. Big Squats were held around the world in 19 countries, to raise awareness of the 2.5 billion people who don’t have access to toilets.

We thought it was a great idea, and went about telling everyone we knew to meet us at the beach in Mumbai, Chowpatty, to gather and squat. It was all going as planned until the police got wind of things. Their friends at the Bombay Municipal Corporation (BMC) had tipped them off when they saw our announcement in the Mumbai Mirror (the New York Post of Mumbai) inviting the good citizens of Mumbai to join us.

Surrounded by 14 cops and two high ranking BMC officials, we started to question if we had gone about our public demonstration in the right way. First, we probably should have been clearer. It turns out that the BMC and the police were under the impression that we planned to rally a big group of people to collectively use the bathroom on the beach. Even after we cleared that up—that we had no intention of actually using the beach as our loo (just a demonstration folks!)—the police were still wary. They said that because of the terror attacks in Mumbai a year ago, there are no public demonstrations allowed on Chowpatty Beach at all. Big Squat foiled.

What we did do, before we were shut down, was hand out educational flyers to beachgoers. Printed in Hindi and English, the flyers told people about the need for proper sanitation, and the need for more toilets in Mumbai, both public, and in homes and slum communities. People were happy to see us, and interested in what we had to say.

Sheepishly, we must admit that we learned a lot more on Thursday than we anticipated. Next time, we’ll speak to our friends at the BMC and the Mumbai police commission first, and get their buy-in so that they realize we’re allies in this process, not enemies. Second, we’ll get a press partner in advance. At the event, we had 6 radio correspondents show up who said they would be happy to publicize a cool event like this in the future. Third, we’ll do awareness raising activities on the ground, on site leading up to our big event to generate excitement and dialogue. Lastly, we’ll also put our messages in Marathi, the state language! Hindi is always appreciated, but with some audiences, the local language is even better understood. It’s all about knowing your audience.

Monday, November 16, 2009 – Friday, November 20, 2009

Women in many parts of the world do not have access to basic information and care during childbirth, leading to 500,000 maternal deaths a year worldwide. This week, in conjunction with our Twitter Social Enterprise of the Day feature, we have  highlighted five organizations across the world,  that are making prenatal and maternity care affordable and accessible to women at the Bottom of the Pyramid.

Monday, November 16, 2009

Social Enterprise of the Day – NDLOVU Care Group

Operating in rural  South Africa since 1994, the NDLOVU Care Group focuses on Community Healthcare and Community Development Programs.  Apart from providing affordable 24-hour antenatal services with a staff of two midwives and four enrolled nurses and an ambulance facility, NDLOVU is also making pioneering steps in preventing mother to child transmission of HIV during childbirth. Their extensive prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) program aims to reduce the HIV transmission from mother to child to less than 1%.

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Social Enterprise of the Day – Family Care International

For over 20 years Family Care International has worked towards improving maternity health in Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean. The organization’s programming includes educating girls and women on how to prevent unintended pregnancies; awareness sessions on sexual and reproductive health and rights of young people and other underserved groups; and outreach to educate about the spread of HIV.  FCI works with governments, non-governmental organizations, professional groups, and international agencies to make pregnancy and childbirth safer around the world.

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Social Enterprise of the Day – Life Spring Hospitals

Quality maternity care is most often inaccessible and unaffordable to women of lower income groups in India, leading to ill health of mother and child. While public hospital services are free, they often compromise quality, transparency, efficiency, and attitude towards the customers. Life Spring Hospitals aims to bridge this gap by providing high quality private maternity care to women of lower income groups through their innovative solutions for women and babies. The Life Spring model is a market based one of small hospitals.  By utilizing a cross-subsidy model of tiered pricing,  Life Spring can charge low prices for the general ward, which makes up 70% of each hospital.

Thursday, November 19, 2009

Social Enterprise of the Day – Donna Gibb Maternity Clinic

Providing maternity care in Atasomanso, a suburb of Komasi, Ghana, the Donna Gibb Maternity Clinic is proud to serve everyone who enters. Aimed at providing affordable care to the poorest of poor expectant mothers, the Donna Gibb Clinic provides free treatment to those who simply can’t afford it. The clinic is currently quite small, with only five beds; nevertheless, they are providing an invaluable service to the community’s women.  They plan to have a new hospital up and running soon.

Friday, November 20, 2009

Social Enterprise of the Day – Maternova

An innovative portal connecting maternal health workers across the globe, Maternova is tracking innovations in the space that will help save lives that are lost during pregnancy and childbearing in the developing world. Catering to the need for knowledge sharing, Maternova is a place where cross-fertilization of ideas, contacts and practical knowledge on age-old problems occurs at 21st century levels of efficiency and speed. From news and event updates to innovations like motorbike ambulances and hand-carried ultrasound machines , Maternova is a comprehensive knowledge sharing platform that will help save millions of lives.

We have recently entered into a partnership with The Better India. A great resource for those optimists out there, The Better India is devoted to highlighting the happy stories, unsung heroes and heroines, and small good deeds of the subcontinent. By showcasing these stories, The Better India, much like Beyond Profit, hopes to inspire us all to do something that leaves an impact. Small or large. But an impact.

The following is the first post in this partnership. Ranjini Sivaswamy reports:

Sittilingi is a remote village in Dharmapuri district, 125 km away from Salem town in Tamil Nadu, which used to be a god forsaken land caught under the spell of quacks and black magic. Noisy drums and fake injections were all they had to cure illnesses. This is when Dr. Regi and Dr. Lalitha took the plunge. This doctor couple went ahead to provide medical services to the tribals of Sittilingi, leaving their promising careers in the cities.

The couple found their calling in service to the underprivileged and wanted to use their knowledge where it was needed the most. Their hunt for the right place to offer their service ended at Sittilingi, a totally neglected and ignored tribal village. They ventured into the village, faced tough resistances and now they have emerged successful in establishing a full-fledged medical center for the tribals. A service beyond praises!

Regi and Lalitha called their service the Tribal Health Initiative (THI). Their perseverance and continued service has brought about dramatic change in the living conditions of the natives. Infant mortality rate in Sittilingi has reduced to 20/1000 and there are no mothers dying in childbirth for the past 5 years. The nutrition levels of children and the general well being of the people have improved to a great extent. » Continue reading “Doctor couple does wonders for tribals at Sittilingi”

Venkat Subramanian is the Founder and Managing Director of Matchbox Solutions, a company which uses technology to solve critical issues in India.  Efarm, one such solution, uses technology to provide supply chain efficiency for procuring and delivering fruits and vegetables grown on rural farms.

There is growing awareness across the globe about the benefits of organically grown food products. Fifty years ago, everything that farmers produced was “organic,” although it had no “fad value.” The simple farmers’ techniques revolved around a holistic view of the village ecosystem – the farm, animals, birds, insects. Everything had a collective role to play in different stages of a plant’s growth.

It was the elite, educated urban folks from colleges and institutions who ridiculed the farmer’s practices and said farming could be done another way. It was they who introduced “scientific” methods, artificial chemicals, and pesticides.

Now, the very same elite juntha (the masses), who have now realized the dangers of these chemicals filtering into the food we eat, are suddenly preaching the advantages of going “organic” and “eco-sensitive.”

But the last 50 years of systematic “brain washing” of the farmers has done deep damage – a whole generation has lost the tradition of these organic farm techniques. And worse still, those practices have not been properly documented.

Though most people are aware of the benefits of organically grown produce and prefer it over chemically grown produce, what shocks people is the cost. Organic produce is often available only in high-end shops, and at such high prices that it is a privilege reserved for the upper class. There are several reasons attributed to this higher, “premium” cost – such as cost of production, less yield, certification, etc. But the reality is quite different.

Organic cultivation is CHEAPER!

Organic cultivation is cheaper than inorganic because typically the cost of chemical fertilizers and pesticides is over 70% of farmer’s expense. Organic manure is typically sourced from within the village itself (cow dung, agri-waste, compost), and thus they are not impacted by rising costs of fertilizers and black marketing of such items. » Continue reading “Organic Produce For Less?”