SE Forum on TwitterListen to what Jeffrey Sachs, economic advisor to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon and founder of Millennium Promise Alliance; a nonprofit organization with aim to end extreme poverty and hunger, has to say about Sweden’s efforts to eradicate poverty.
See the full interview here.
This months SE Bar will take place on October 28 at 17.30-19.00, Restaurant Publik (PUB-huset in Hötorget).
Learn more about the work of MEST (Meltwater Entrepreneurial School of Technology). Key speaker Ylva Strander will talk about how a small company can make a big difference. MEST is the not for profit arm of the international software company Meltwater Group. They equip young graduates in Ghana, West Africa, with the necessary skills to start their own software companies with a goal to compete on the global markets. The institution is offering a 2-year fully sponsored trainee program in computer programming, software development and entrepreneurship. This will enable participants to create wealth and employment locally in Ghana. Through MEST, the Meltwater Group would like to make a difference in the lives of young brilliant and driven Ghanaians.
Why couldn’t the next software giant emerge from Africa?
Read more at: http://meltwater.org/
Socialt entreprenörskap är benämningen på företagande där affärsidén direkt härrör ur ett samhällsproblem (socialt eller miljömässigt) vilka man löser med innovativa och affärsmässiga metoder. Företagen existerar alltså för att skapa samhällsnytta samtidigt som man ställer krav på finansiell avkastning. Grundförutsättningen för socialt entreprenörskap är att alla dimensioner av verksamheten – såväl den sociala som den ekonomiskt självförsörjande – ska vara värdeskapande. Detta skiljer sig från s k Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) som går ut på att göra befintliga processer och verksamheter i ett företag ansvarsfulla.
Vilka exempel och vilken potential finns i socialt entreprenörskap?
Det mest framstående exemplet på socialt entreprenörskap är nobelpristagaren Muhammad Yunus och Grameen Bank, som ger mikrolån till de mest utsatta och behövande i Bangladesh. Andra exempel är den svenske entreprenören Björn Söderbergs två företag Watabaran inom pappersåtervinning och WebSearch Professional som jobbar etiskt med webbutveckling och programmering i Nepal. Det danska företaget Specialisterne anställer personer med autism som konsulter i mjukvaruindustrin där deras siffer- och mönsterseende blir en unik kompetens.
Gatutidningen Situation Stockholm är ett exempel på ett försök att minska utslagning genom företagande. Andra sociala entreprenörer är DEM Collective, ett etiskt klädföretag som visar på möjligheten att producera kläder utan att utnyttja människor eller miljö för ren vinst, Blatteförmedlingen som jobbar med mångfaldsrekryetring och Ekobanken, en etisk bank som huvudsakligen ger lån till verksamheter som skapar ett socialt, miljömässigt eller kulturellt mervärde.
Vilket stöd behövs för att främja socialt entreprenörskap i Sverige?
Forskaren Karl Palmås* har visat att det i Sverige saknas en fungerande struktur för organisationer med sociala mål drivna med kommersiella verksamhetsprinciper, och har jämfört det svenska samhällsklimatet med det mer socialt företagsvänliga brittiska.
I en uppsats från Stockholms universitet förra året** konstateras att det i Sverige råder en kontroversiell syn kring sammanflätningen av områdena kommersiellt och ideellt i jämförelse med andra länder som exempelvis USA och Storbritannien. Det råder en misstro mot företag som tjänar pengar samtidigt som de har en social agenda. I samma studie tas följande exempel på stöd som kan främja socialt entreprenörskap upp:
SE Forum ser även att det finns behov av arenor där sociala entreprenörer kan möta finansiärer och andra samarbetspartner, och verkar för att skapa mötesplatser och forum för socialt entreprenörskap (något som kan utvecklas till att t ex bilda inkubatorer för socialt entreprenörskap).
Läs mer:
*) Den barmhärtige entreprenören, Karl Palmås, Agora 2003
**) Do well and do good – en studie av affärsklimatet för sociala företag i Sverige, Celeste DeCasas & Hanna von Schantz, http://www2.fek.su.se/uppsats/uppsats/2008/Magister/0253/Magisteruppsats_socialt_foretagande_HT08.pdf
The meaning of Social Entrepreneurship, J. Gregory Dees, Professor in Public Service at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business, http://www.se-forum.se/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/social_entrepreneuship_dees1.pdf
A “Youtube with a heart and soul”. This is how founder Daniel Daboczy described IdeasForChange when he gave us a tour around the website at the monthly SE Bar last wednesday. The IdeasForChange project was started with help from SE Forum. The main goal is to spread knowledge and develop a web site where people with ideas on how to create a better world can gather to communicate and form projects.
“Each and every person has a lot of knowledge on different topics”, said Daniel Daboczy. IdeasForChange collects some 
of this knowledge and categorizes it in different topics such as Economy, Environment and Society.
Daniel Daboczy mentions his father as one who would have a lot to contribute to the site. He is an Hungarian who lived in Rumania, experienced communism, and fled to Sweden where he stayed by himself for three years before his family was able to join him. He has been working in different factories since and is a man with plenty of ideas and a background that offers some unique perspective on things.
The site will offer both text and videos on different topics. Videos have become a powerful tool for people to make their voice heard. One video that has already found its way to the site is from 1991 and shows Rodney King being beaten by Los Angelse police officers. The video is an example of inversed surveillance where citizens watching authorities caused a storm when released. It was followed by the Los Angeles riots but also helped to put focus on police brutality.
Presentation of the site turns quickly into a discussion and lots of questions are raised.
Who will judge what kind of material is appropriate for the site or not? How are they going to handle commercial interests and will there be a copyright conflict?
The site will be editorial and equipped with an abuse system. Commercial videos and texts will be highlighted but there are still some practicalities to be solved. When it comes to copyright Daniel Daboczy doesn’t see it as a problem.
“People put material on this site to do good, not to make money”, he said.
To learn more about IdeasForChange, visit www.ideasforchange.tv
In April, three members of SE Forum conducted a pre-study trip to Nairobi, Kenya, in collaboration with Ashoka East Africa regarding the preconditions for setting up a joint East African/Swedish sustainable business management education programme, focused on social entrepreneurship and sustainable businesses. The trip was funded by The Swedish Institute.
The SE Forum team visited a number of social entrepreneurship ventures, social businesses, businesses of importance to the Kenyan economy, NGO:s, business associations, development cooperation organizations, business experts, journalists and media sector representatives.
The feedback from the actors visited and a workshop concluding the trip, showed that there is a genuine need and sincere interest from key actors within sustainable business and social entrepreneurship in Nairobi for the launch of a joint East African/Swedish sustainable business management education programme.
SE Forum is currently applying for funds to set up a Swedish/Kenyan pilot version of the programme in 2010, together with Ashoka and another local partner. If you are interested in supporting the programme in any way, please contact Jakob Sundberg (jakob@se-forum.se) or Harry Mcneil (harry@se-forum.se), both members of SE Forum’s board.
SE Forum’s activities are all carried out on a voluntary basis and as an organization we want to offer you a platform where you can easily make use of your competence working for a good cause. We are highly interested in meeting new people of different backgrounds who are active, capable and inspired and wants to make a change. For this reason we’ve created different working teams in order to gather people with different interests and give them a chance to get involved in our organization.
The second working team ready to launch is the Event team led by Board members Anna Edwall and Jonas Pinzke. The kick-off meeting will take place on October 8. The principal aim of the team will be to generate ideas in relation to the monthly event SE Bar, as well as the SE Forum Event in November 2009.
If you want to help SE Forum to develop activities that inspires and spreads the word about Social Entrepreneurship, and create connections between all people and sectors to create social change, please contact Anna (anna@se-forum.se) or Jonas (jonas@se-forum.se) for more information or simply to submit an entry.
When? Thursday 8 October at 12.00
Location: Yogayama, Jungfrugatan 8, Stockholm
