What makes Portugal a social innovation success story - and what Sweden can learn
As societies across Europe face mounting social and environmental challenges, the importance of fostering social innovation has never been greater. But while many countries acknowledge this need, few have developed the kind of structured, long-term support ecosystem that Portugal has successfully build over the past decade.
Last week, SE Forum participated in a BIRDS conference in Portugal, invited by The Swedish National Competence Centre at Mötesplats Social Innovation, Malmö University, to explore how countries like Portugal, France, Spain and Sweden are working to finance and grow social innovation. The visit offered valuable insights into how Portugal – once facing severe economic hardship – has turned crisis into opportunity, building one of Europe’s most inspiring ecosystems for social innovation.
The foundation was laid in 2014 with the launch of Portugal Social Innovation, a national public programme made possible by a rare alignment of factors: a strong base of social entrepreneurs, the early presence of the Social Business School, political champions in government, and the availability of EU structural funds.
This mix led to the creation of a national strategy and a dedicated mission unit to lead the work. Portugal Social Innovation distributed over €150 million during the first programme cycle, supporting nearly 700 projects and involving more than 800 co-investors such as philanthropists, impact investors and municipalities. But it wasn’t just the funding that made a difference – it was the structure and culture around it.
Key reasons for success:
A dedicated public agency coordinating policy and managing funds
A flexible programme design, open to various actors and approaches
A strong focus on local and regional ecosystems and municipal partnerships
Continuous capacity building, incubation, and shared learning across stakeholders
Outcome-based funding and impact tracking
Perhaps most crucially, the initiative remained politically stable even through government changes. It is still housed in a central ministry and has evolved into Portugal 2030, with €100 million in new funding and a continued emphasis on building an ecosystem – not just funding isolated projects.
What can Sweden learn?
While Swedish civil society and impact organisations are active and experienced, they often lack scale-up capital, long-term funding, and the policy frameworks to support experimentation and growth. Public funding tends to focus on short-term projects, and the third sector falls between the cracks of a political landscape where the left prioritises the public sector and the right prefers the private.
What Portugal shows us is that building an ecosystem requires more than goodwill – it needs infrastructure, investment, and champions in government. It requires us to:
Acknowledge the third sector as a vital actor in solving societal challenges – not just through voluntary engagement, but as professional, innovative contributors.
Invest strategically in infrastructure, incubation, and blended finance solutions.
Create national coordination with a clear mandate to grow the field, tied to regional activation and stakeholder participation.
Promote learning, measurement, and visibility, so that the value of social innovation is both understood and celebrated.
In Sweden, we have much of the knowledge, commitment and creative energy needed – but the structures to connect and support these efforts and underdeveloped. Building a national strategy for social innovation, and a financing ecosystem to back it up, would be a critical step forward.
The Portuguese experience reminds us that social innovation is not just about isolated projects – it’s about creating systems that enable ideas to grow, to challenge the status quo, and to build more just, inclusive and resilient societies.
As we navigate growing social divides, climate disruption and democratic erosion, we need to think long-term. Social innovation is one of the most powerful tools we have to bring about meaningful change – but only of we’re willing to invest in it.
Let’s take a page from Portugal’s playbook. Let’s build a Swedish ecosystem for social innovation that lasts – across sectors, political lines and generations.