Social entrepreneurship in the philippines

Social Entrepreneurship: A new Concept

By Joyce Reano

In a seminar headed by Harvey Keh, director for Youth Leadership and Social
Entrepreneurship of the Ateneo de Manila University School of Government in
partnership with the British Council, Smart Communications, Avant Charge, and Ashoka
Philippines, a new strategy in generating profit while solving social problems has been
presented.
During this seminar, entitled Making Change Through Business: A Seminar on the Best
Practices in Social Entrepreneurship, several renowned speakers who ventured in social
enterprise enlightened guests regarding the new concept. Among the speakers were Steve
Koon, founder of Avant Change, Professor Lisa Dacanay, executive director of the
Institute for Social Entrepreneurship in Asia, Fr. Xavier Alpasa, president of
Rags2Riches, Mark Ruiz, managing director of Hapinoy and Atty. Arnell Casanova, lead
faculty for social entrepreneurship in the Ateneo School of Government.
“As you very well know, Ateneo is celebrating its 150 years. This year and part of our
150th year celebration, we are holding the series of lectures on certain topics that we are
currently involved in. and one of the thrust of the university is to promote social
entrepreneurship not only within Ateneo but even outside the Ateneo community,” Keh
said.
Koon, who first lectured, gave his brief definition of Social Enterprise that is the desire to
be a change maker and a moneymaker. Noting that the charity model which hasn’t
changed for the past 600 year, he challenges people to innovate a model which not only
generates money but serves as a business solution to solve social problems.
“I don’t believe in the charity model. In a way, it robs people of their dignity—their
ability to dream and freedom. The model should be one wherein they can use their skills
and be able to feel that they have valuable services,” Koon said.
He also promoted some companies such as Kiva,heifer, Ammado and the Acumen Fund
which can be seen online.
Dacanay, on the other hand, contextualized the concept in the Philippine setting. She
cited the forces and traditions shaping the social enterprise sector.
“In social entrepreneurship, one of the things that we are problematizing on is how we
create innovative ways of providing greater access to social economic services to those
who cannot usually afford it,” she said.
She cited the best practices in the Philippines such as KOOL-NE, School of Indigenous
Knowledge and Traditions (SIKAT), Alter Trade Group and Philippine Educational
Theater Association (Peta). In line with the companies are the following concepts which
she explained in depth. Empowerment, Social Inclusion, Intermediation and Resource
Modification was tackled.
SIKAT, whose curriculum is culture based, community managed and established in the
partnership with the local government practices Social Inclusion. Peta uses resource
modification by using films as a means of generating profit to help the marginalized.
Fr.Alpa and Mark Ruiz shared their experience in their social enterprises in Rags2Riches
and Hapinoy respectively. Fr. Alpa whose company Rags2Riches has empowered the
women in Payatas. Rags, which are actually sold for a cheap price, can be innovated and
sold at a higher cost. He gave three phases. Nanays whom he called the weavers of the
rags must be linked directly to the market. To increase scalability, they launched a high-
end designer line. Rajo Laurel fashioned some rags into designer bags—the commodity
became a saleable product in the class-A market. Phase three included ensuring product
quality and efficient operations.
He also mentioned building strong community values and building a power brand. Last
but not the least was to expand to more communities. Even these rags meta morphed into
products which became globally competitive—and even won a couple of international
awards. He did mention that he encountered a lot of difficulties. The way out of this was
to trust that the Nanays are capable of solving the problem. According to Fr. Alpasa, they
are even the ones who suggest solutions.
“Life is a risk, if you’ve failed you’ve never lived,” Fr. Alpasa said.
Mark Ruiz on the other hand showed empowerment of the smallest, most marginalized
unit of retail and the micro-entrepreneur. Social Entrepreneurships need to evolve to meet
the needs of the Filipino marginalized. There’s not only an economic empowerment but
empowerment of the self. From retail, production can be gotten.
Benefits from investing in Hapinoy include store branding, training and capacity building
and access to best price and new businesses. Ruiz aims at future expansion, evolution and
empowerment.
“We never treat the Nanays as beneficiaries—always as business partners,” Ruiz Said.
Atty. Casanova then talked about wealth creation and how individuals can start making a
successful social enterprise plan.
Social Entrepreneurship started at 2007 and Ateneo has been running classes to train
students on personal leadership. This new way of doing business and charity makes
helping sustainable. Concepts of doing business with social development are merged to
compose the concept.
“The wonderful world of entrepreneurship is for everyone. I don’t believe that people are
born to be entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurship is a skill that can be learned and the
wonderful world of entrepreneurship allows us not only to help others and help change
the Philippines but provides everybody the opportunity to earn a decent living,” Keh said.