The business of impact in a changing world

This article was first published by Forbes.

In Bangladesh, social enterprise Drinkwell has rolled out over 370 “Water ATMs” and counting, bringing safe and affordable drinking water to more than three million people who previously lacked access. Their work has created hundreds of dignified jobs, many for women, and reflects a purposeful new approach to business. Indeed, as one of 21 social innovators and entrepreneurs recognised by the 2026 Schwab Foundation Awards, Drinkwell represents a wider movement of businesses redefining markets for broader benefit at a time when traditional approaches are under strain.

Technology-driven growth is fundamentally changing the global economy, while development aid has been decimated. Funding from top donor countries is expected to decline by $67 billion between 2023 and 2026, a drop of almost a third. A shifting geopolitical order and the digital and clean energy transitions drive the need to explore alternative solutions – especially for those at risk of being left behind. Thankfully, impact-focused business models like Drinkwell’s are inspiring organisations across the private and public sectors, demonstrating resourcefulness, innovation and a clear path to blending economic growth with social impact.

Generating both financial profits and positive impacts, social enterprises blend the discipline of the market with a mission to help people and the planet. In a quiet revolution, they’ve become increasingly common. Already, there are an estimated 10 million social enterprises worldwide, creating nearly 200 million jobs and generating $2 trillion in revenue each year – more than the global fashion industry. Africa alone has over two million social enterprises, accounting for 12 million jobs and approximately 3.2% of the entire continent’s GDP.

The social entrepreneurs behind this new breed of business are reimagining our economic systems to make them more sustainable and inclusive. For example, women lead more than half of all African impact enterprises, while young people run over a third.

These impact enterprises also open up sustainable new markets and opportunities for collective action in three ways:

1. Making corporates more resilient through social procurement

2. Enabling governments to deliver better services

3. Facilitating collaboration

International supply chains are increasingly vulnerable to social and environmental shocks. Analysis by the Schwab Foundation, in partnership with Austrian technology company Prewave, examined over 150,000 global supply chain events between 2023 and 2024, revealing a sharp rise in social challenges. Protests and strikes related to factors like livelihoods and working conditions represented nearly a fifth of cases, making them the second largest challenge after legal disputes. At the same time, the rise in extreme weather events due to climate change is causing frequent supply chain disruption. In this context, buying from social enterprises that prioritise benefits to local communities and their landscapes is becoming essential for long-term resilience.

Buying goods and services from social enterprises, what’s known as “social procurement”, is also how to revolutionise the scale and speed of corporate transformation. At present, FTSE 100 companies typically allocate only an average of $12 million per year to their corporate and social responsibility budgets. But if they switched to social procurement, they could unleash their average annual procurement budgets of around $5 billion for good. In fact, two-thirds of a company's potential for positive or negative social and environmental impacts comes from its supply chain.

As 55% of businesses buying this way attest, it brings other benefits too. For example, it enables stronger compliance in a world in which the regulatory web is tightening, especially in the EU. Plus, it enhances brand reputation and talent retention, as consumers and workforces increasingly value ethical and sustainable practices.

French footwear brand VEJA is a case in point. By buying organic and agroecological cotton from Brazil and Peru, natural rubber from the Amazon and recycled P.E.T. from the Brazilian Catadores to make its products, the company integrates social, economic and ecological justice into its business model. Since 2004, the company has established a dedicated following and sold more than 14 million pairs of sneakers, demonstrating that an ethical stance doesn’t hinder financial viability.

In some parts of the world, social entrepreneurs are helping governments deliver better services and outcomes for their citizens. For example, in Ethiopia, Tebita Ambulance offers a complementary service to the country’s existing medical infrastructure – filling in the gaps with pre-hospital care, ambulance transport and first aid training. To date, it has responded to more than 100,000 calls for ambulance support.

Certain governments are even adopting social innovation themselves. For instance, Chile has a national public service innovation unit (Laboratorio de Gobierno) that is transforming public services and tackling real-world challenges such as access to health and education by embedding innovation, human-centred design and collaboration across the government. Its initiatives include the Public Innovation School, which has trained over 45,000 public officials in how they can start rethinking some of their services from a social entrepreneur perspective.

No single organisation can solve today’s challenges alone; systemic change necessitates mass collaboration. To this end, social innovators embody this year’s World Economic Forum Annual Meeting theme, ‘a spirit of dialogue’, showing us how to work together in a culture of community and cohesion, rather than competition. By supporting their local communities and landscapes, these enterprises are real-world examples of positive collective action that create the social and environmental change we need.

As an example of this co-operative ethos, Movilizatorio, in Colombia, fosters collaboration between citizens, the private sector and public institutions to advance democratic participation and social cohesion. Its array of programmes include one that tackled social polarisation in the run up to the country’s 2023 regional elections by creating tools for community groups to counter divisive narratives – like a website, social media campaigns and workshops.

Social enterprises demonstrate that economic prosperity does not have to come at the expense of society and the environment. In fact, our future prosperity depends on our ability to live within planetary limits – a threshold we currently exceed by 1.7 times – and to ensure that everyone is meaningfully included in the economy. That’s why these purposeful business models offer a way forward. They can help corporations and governments achieve long-term stability, resilience and growth – by strengthening supply chains, improving the delivery of goods and services, and facilitating collaboration. By learning from those who dare to innovate, collaborate and lead with purpose, we can make lasting, positive impacts as we evolve into a new socioeconomic order. In a world in transition, social enterprises offer a beacon of real hope.