A big day for social entrepreneurs

It was a big day for social entrepreneurs in the public programme here in Davos. First, Anne Hastings, the Schwab Foundation’s 2010 Social Entrepreneur of the Year for Latin America, kicked off the morning presentations in the Haiti IdeasLab session. She shared her experiences of “accompanying women out of poverty” over the past fifteen years at the helm of Fonkoze, Haiti’s largest microfinance institution.

The IdeasLab format is ideally suited to our community of “doers” because it allows them to tell their story not just in words, but pictures. A huge screen displays rotating images while each speaker gives their five minute presentation, and as we all know, a picture tells a thousand words. The stories of some of the Haitian women Fonkoze works with jump to life when we can actually see their achievements, as well as share their devastating losses.

In the wake of the earthquake, Anne is grappling with how Fonkoze should leverage its strengths, including 200,000 clients, 830 trained staff and 43 branches around the country, to get the Haitian economy back on its feet. Crucially, this means adding microinsurance to Fonkoze’s portfolio of products. As Anne said, “I cannot keep counselling women to work hard, save, and build assets if I cannot protect those assets. I have seen too many women climb out of poverty only to be knocked back down because of a death in the family, a fire, or a natural disaster.”

What works so well about IdeasLab sessions is that they tap into the collective wisdom and expertise of everyone in the room. After her presentation, Anne then led a small interactive discussion with other Davos participants to help her think through the critical challenge of asset protection, as well as what role Fonkoze should play in fostering the small and medium enterprise sector – because not everyone is cut out to be an entrepreneur, but with an employment rate of 70%, hundreds of thousands of people need jobs.

Luis Moreno, President of the Inter-American Development Bank, as well as a high-level Ministerial delegation from the Dominican Republic attended this session. As Anne shared with me afterwards, her discussion helped her advance nascent partnerships with other organizations like the IADB that are so important for scaling Fonkoze’s work.

This afternoon, we opened the IdeasLab with Social Entrepreneurs to a packed room. Five social entrepreneurs discussed their strategic objectives and asked participants to collectively problem-solve with them. Jeroo Billimoria talked about the burgeoning Child Finance movement and led discussions in her breakout session on how to encourage banks to develop child-friendly banking products.

Andrea Coleman talked about the life-saving role of reliable transportation for millions of Africans living in rural areas. Her organization, Riders for Health, trains health care workers and mechanics to service cars and motorbikes and keep them in good condition. This in turn increases the number of communities each health worker can visit, cuts the testing time for blood samples from months to days, and saves an average of $40,000 in maintenance costs per vehicle over a five year period.

Garth C. Japhet is known for the phenomenal success of Soul City and Soul Buddyz, his educational soap opera programming and children's clubs that reach 45 million across 10 countries in Southern Africa. Capitalizing on that loyal fan base, he is now launching the social media platform "forgood" to help connect people based on interests and location to information and tools that help them take action. He asked Davos participants to help him think through his launch strategy, which is coming up soon in June 2011!

Patrick Schofield talked about Indalo’s market-based solution of combining the talents of sophisticated   Western designers with skilled African craftsmen. Working with over 600 artisans in South Africa, the handicrafts he showcased are absolutely exquisite: from recycled bags to tableware and home décor to beadwork. As the telecommunications landscape evolves quickly, he brainstormed with participants on the key social media channels and up-and-coming technologies that will reduce costs and differentiate Indalo in a crowded marketplace.

Finally, Ariel Zylbersztejn shared a very personal story about the evolution of his thinking and of Cinepop, the social business he founded in Mexico. Cinepop is a travelling free outdoor movie show that will reach over one million low-income people across Mexico this year. More than movies, it is a festival that also provides people access to mobile phones and microcredit, environmental and educational messages, and now a mobile health clinic as well. He asked the audience for suggestions on how to engage corporate partners that share Cinepop’s values and can help him scale his social impact – and Schwab Foundation board member and Former First Lady Zanele Mbeki promptly asked him to bring Cinepop to South Africa.

Seventy-five minutes is not a lot of time to explore these exciting models in great depth, much less draw up elaborate strategic plans. But the foundation was laid. Business cards were exchanged. Commitments were made. Now comes the hard work of developing ideas further, chasing down leads, and following up on promises of help. But social entrepreneurs are nothing if not persistent. It could be weeks or even months from now, but I know we’ll hear about exciting new ventures or partnerships that originated from this session in Davos!

Katie Milligan

 

Editor's note
Katherine Milligan, Head, Middle East and North America,  Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship