The Drum Beat 369 - Social Entrepreneurship: A Communication Lens

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We would like to take a moment to honour the life and work of our friend and colleague, journalist and AIDS activist Omololu Falobi, from Nigeria. Omololu served as the African non-governmental organisation (NGO) representative to UNAIDS for 2004 and 2005; helped convene the African Civil Society Coalition on HIV and AIDS, which coordinates the advocacy efforts of African NGOs; and co-founded the Nigeria HIV Vaccine and Microbicides Advocacy Group, to name just a few of his many projects. He was appointed a 2001 Ashoka Fellow, an elite group of 200 social entrepreneurs recognised for developing innovative approaches to building a better world. Throughout his very short career, Omololu's leadership in addressing issues related to HIV/AIDS, including as one of the founders of Journalists Against AIDS, as well as his commitment to social responsibility and action, were remarkable. His tragic death on October 5 2006 was a shock. He will be greatly missed.

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This issue of the Drum Beat offers a communication-centred look at the efforts and strategies of individuals acting as change agents for society by highlighting a few of the social-entrepreneurship-related resources, projects, and strategic thinking pieces available on The Communication Initiative website.

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UNDERSTANDING THE CONCEPT: RESOURCES

1. The Social Entrepreneurship Series [DVD series]
This 16-programme DVD series, offered by Ashoka's Global Academy for Social Entrepreneurship team, shares the experiences and insights of inspiring social entrepreneurs from around the world. They explain how they have worked to change the world by building global organisations and movements that "demonstrate how a new kind of commerce can expand the frontiers of companies and citizen organizations, while empowering poor people to access the opportunities of the global market."

2. The New Heroes
Offered by the USA-based Public Broadcasting System, this interactive website is inspired by a national television series which told "the dramatic stories of 14 daring people from all corners of the globe who, against all odds, are successfully alleviating poverty and illness, combating unemployment and violence, and bringing education, light, opportunity and freedom to poor and marginalized people around the world." The website engages people in social entrepreneurship through an online game exploring how to build a socially conscious business, a quiz, a section for sharing stories of transformation, and various resources for parents and for teachers.

3. The Turning Tide: The People, Principles & Strategies Creating Ecological Balance
This publication documents the creative insights and practical strategies developed by a diverse group from Ashoka's Global Fellowship of social entrepreneurs who met to address global challenges to the environment in October 2000, providing "a practical look at what some of the world's most cutting-edge environmental innovators are doing to tackle environmental challenges of global importance in fields as diverse as river conservation, community-based forestry, and sustainable agriculture."

4. YouthActionNet (YAN)
YAN works to connect youth worldwide to create change. This interactive website, created by and for young people, spotlights "the vital role that youth play in leading positive change around the world" through searchable youth project pages and youth-created web pages. It also includes various discussion forums, links to opportunities, and resources - which young people are encouraged to submit, search, and access.

5. Changemakers
Members of this global online "open source" community - and the associated Changemakers e-journal - aim to provide solutions and resources needed to help everyone become a changemaker. The journal is an effort to present compelling stories that explore the fundamental principles of successful social innovation around the world. Recent articles such as "2005 Lessons Learned: the Power of Community Participation" and "An Entrepreneur Tackles the Logistics of Disaster" are designed to seed collaborative action and visibility on a global scale.

6. Community Problem-Solving Project - Global
Implemented by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), this project centres around an online resource designed for those working around the globe to address social problems and promote change. Users of the site are urged to: "Be strategic, get engaged, make a difference. Make new mistakes." Among the 2 main resources for learning is a Program Tools section designed for those who are seeking to resolve specific, substantive problems by learning what works and what doesn't in a given area, such as through online clearinghouses and interactive websites.
Contact feedback@community-problem-solving.net

THE CONCEPT IN ACTION: EXPERIENCES

7. Voice of the Youth (VOTY) Network - Philippines
VOTY Network is inspired to spur Filipino youth to believe in themselves and their ability to make a difference. It is a multimedia organisation that seeks to create environments where young people are exposed to new thinking, a diversity of voices, and new opportunities. Driven by youth, the goal of the VOTY Network is to foster a sense of leadership, participation and social entrepreneurship through the innovative use of technology and media. VOTY uses 3 main communication channels to facilitate information sharing and dialogue: the internet and email, text messaging to cell phones, and AM radio. VOTY also takes part in various community-based activities in an effort to empower other youth "to duplicate, innovate or do something different that would have an impact to their communities" - such as helping celebrate 6th Global Youth in Service Day 2005 by engaging youth in local environmental clean-up projects.
Contact Mr. Pocholo ("Choy") Gonzales choy.gonzales@voty.org

8. WITNESS - Global
This independent nonprofit organisation works to empower human rights defenders to use video to shine a light on those most affected by human rights violations, and to transform personal stories of abuse into tools to communicate about, and fight for, justice. WITNESS' training "operates on multiple tracks, educating human rights groups in how to use video to complement existing advocacy plans and incorporate outreach to decision-makers, the media, and the general public." First, the Seeding Video Advocacy initiative is a response to the demand for short-term training in the use of video for human rights and social justice advocacy, one that at the same time enables WITNESS to disseminate best practices (e.g., through its book "Video for Change: A Guide for Advocacy and Activism") and to learn about other innovative ideas for using video in advocacy. Second, WITNESS' Core Partnerships are intensive, 2-3 year collaborations built around specific issues which give WITNESS the opportunity to assess cooperatively which communication and advocacy tactics produce the maximal result.
Click here to contact WITNESS online.

9. Nokia/IYF Global Youth Development Initiative - Global
This initiative of the International Youth Foundation (IYF) and Nokia attempts to equip young people with essential "life skills", including greater self-confidence and the ability to think creatively, communicate effectively, relate to others, and make a contribution back to their own society. It works on the basis of in-country programmes which are implemented by local non-governmental organisations in an effort to strengthen the life skills of young people by engaging them in their communities, promoting creative self-expression, providing employment training and promoting youth social entrepreneurship and leadership. For example, in the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, and Russia, young people receive support in contributing to their communities.
Contact Ms. Ami Thakkar athakkar@iyfnet.org OR Ms. Angela Billings community.involvement@Nokia.com

10. Incubator Initiative - Global
Launched by the Information for Development Program (infoDev), this is an effort to enhance entrepreneurship, innovation, and competitiveness among the small business community in developing countries. The strategy involves establishing a network of incubators of small businesses and similar programmes, and through them stimulating the birth and growth of information and communication technology (ICT)-enabled small enterprises. The initiative promotes economic growth by supporting shared knowledge bases and experience exchange; offering technical, strategic planning, and evaluation assistance; and creating opportunities for capacity building. It also seeks to foster international dissemination of successful business incubation practices. For example, an October 2004 Global Forum brought together more than 300 innovators, business experts, entrepreneurs, and policymakers from over 50 countries; what emerged was a "Global Network on Business Incubation for Development" to facilitate continued knowledge exchange.
Contact infodev@worldbank.org

11. Akshaya - India
Akshaya is an effort on the part of the information technology (IT) department of the Kerala, India government to create a community "successfully re-inventing itself for prosperity". The campaign was designed to create interest in training as part of the goal of imparting basic/functional eLiteracy to one member of each of the families in the state. It involves the setting up of multi-purpose IT-enabled "Akshaya Kendras" in every 2 wards, each catering to approximately 1000 families. Local Akshaya bodies will use a rating scale to select "entrepreneurs" who have prior entrepreneurial experience and familiarity with the local region to run the centres. Selection of the member to be trained is determined by the family members, but the preferred age range is 20-30 years. Those trained as part of are expected to act as a catalyst to mobilise and teach relatives and fellow citizens; the course content is designed with this role in mind in that the sessions emphasise the potential associated with learning to use technology, and not technology itself.
Contact info@akshaya.net

12. Games for Change (G4C) - United States
G4C provides support, visibility and shared resources to individuals and organisations in the United States and around the world using digital games for social change. According to G4C, more than half of all Americans play video, and there is the potential for a new range of games to emerge that aim to impact on such diverse issues as economic poverty, health reform and racial inequities. G4C holds an annual conference to bring together expert practitioners, academics, activists, and non-profits, to discuss the impact of current games for social change; the Listserv for the Nonprofit Games Community is designed to facilitate the sharing of information and ideas among G4C members.
Contact Benjamin Stokes benjamin@newdream.net

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Pulse Poll

Understanding the information and communication needs of people living in economic poverty is vital for development progress.

Do you agree or disagree?

[For context, please see The Drum Beat #367]

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ANALYSING THE CONCEPT: THINKING

13. Q&A with Bill Drayton, Founder of Ashoka
In this interview, Ashoka founder Bill Drayton explains that most entrepreneurial leaders go where they can have the biggest impact for the good, where they will find the most ethical and engaged colleagues, and where they will be most challenged. Over half of Ashoka social entrepreneurs have changed national policy within 5 years of their launch. Roughly 90% have seen independent organisations copy their innovations. Drayton says, "More important still, consider the impact a successful social entrepreneur has on one local community after another. Their new idea disrupts existing patterns and the sense that things cannot change. Moreover, their idea is designed to be as user friendly as possible precisely to encourage someone in that community to step forward to implement the entrepreneur's innovation in that community - i.e., to become a local change maker. The example of these champions in turn encourages their family and friends to follow suit with other ideas later." 

14. Helping Non-Profit Sector & Rural Communities Bridge the Digital Divide
Excerpts from an October 2002 Development Gateway Interview with Satish Jha about Digital Partners India, Baramati and Tarahaat: "The credit for starting Baramati Initiatives must go to Tarahaat, Motoo Kusakabe of The World Bank and Sharad Pawar, a former chief minister of Maharashtra state. It was Mr. Kusakabe who decided to drop in at my house on a Sunday evening sometime in the fall of 2000....It [Baramati] is becoming a symbol of bringing together the experiences of using ICT for development in India and now overseas as well. Its message is reaching out beyond South Asia to Africa and Latin America as well....Bringing together the social entrepreneur as well as the beneficiaries has created a hope in the community by connecting them to each other. The use of smart cards for micro credit management or Drishtee or Datamation or evolution of Computer on Wheels to reach out to a new world through Baramati Initiatives cannot be forgotten. Its success should be seen in terms of stimulating the imagination of "would-be" social entrepreneurs to create new solutions on a larger scale."

15. Enterprise Across the Digital Divide: Information Systems and Rural Microenterprise in Botswana
by Richard Duncombe & Richard Heeks
Through a case study of rural microenterprises (MSEs) in Botswana's economically poorest areas, the researchers identify social networks as the primary information system among economically poor rural entrepreneurs. Evidence suggests that information needs of rural MSEs were quite localised and likely to be met more by informal, organic information systems (social networks) than by formal, ICT-based systems. Social networks and social capital became the most valuable resource of information management for rural MSEs. Business owners also placed greater trust and value in information received from personal sources and channels. Information delivered by institutional, non-commercial institutions (e.g. government agencies, non-governmental organisations, donor agencies) was second in importance.

16. Social Capital and Local Development
by Carlo Trigilia
Trigilia asserts that "recent changes in the organization of production, as well as the process of globalization, are increasing the importance of social capital for local development....Today, even more than in the past, economic development has a social dimension that cannot be ignored." He explains that "Social capital can be considered as a set of social relations of which a single subject (for instance, an entrepreneur or a worker) or a collective subject (either private or public) can make use at any given moment. Through the availability of this capital of relations, cognitive resources - such as information - or normative resources - such as trust - allow actors to realize objectives which would not otherwise be realized, or which could be obtained at a much higher cost." More recent trends discussed here include the idea of local development being tied to the capacity to learn, and to developing specialised areas of knowledge which can add to productivity; on this model, more attention is paid to social networks at the local level.

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This issue was written by Kier Olsen DeVries.

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The Drum Beat seeks to cover the full range of communication for development activities. Inclusion of an item does not imply endorsement or support by The Partners.

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