WIth Durreen Shahnaz, founder and chief executive officer of Impact Investment Exchange (IIX)

Today, I played host and moderator on the knowledge sharing event on a study IIX Foundation conducted for te Asian Development Bank. Around 100 social enterprise stakeholders such as government agencies, impact investors and academe attended the event.

This was a departure from my typical work of dealing with the grassroots but it was a pleasant experience. I was tasked to provide an overview of the knowledge sharing event and I thought it would be nice to share this with you so that you get a glimpse of other advocacies I am involved in.

Overview of the knowledge sharing event

The Philippines is at an important crossroads, with the opportunity to drive long-term, sustainable development, if the country can address growing socioeconomic risks and ensure a more inclusive growth.

SEs – financially sustainable enterprises that intentionally generate positive social or environmental impact – have tremendous potential to address the development gaps exacerbating poverty and inequality.

Furthermore, the Philippines already has a vibrant community of private sector stakeholders, and the government has made progress to align their national vision to the Sustainable Development Goals, but it is imperative that we effectively mobilize our resources across the public, private and civil society sectors to support SEs and ensure that they move beyond their current bottleneck in growth.

The role of the government is crucial in establishing an enabling environment including the provision of incentives such as funding opportunities and driving larger national mandates for greater SE support. Impact investors, as well as philanthropic organizations and foundations are also key to providing funding opportunities to SEs across their stages of growth as well as scaling up these SEs and their innovations. Civil society actors can bolster the support for SEs through advocacy, capacity-building and technical assistance. SEs also benefit from peer-to-peer sharing of information and best practices and have the potential to complement and collaborate with each other. Finally, universities and research organizations are key players in documenting and evaluating the impact of SE activities as well as disseminating these results and stories.

Recognizing the immense potential and challenges facing the social entrepreneurship ecosystem, we’re here today to learn about the results of IIX’s study for Strengthening Social Entrepreneurship in the Philippines. Given the robust history and dynamic ecosystem of actors in the country, this Study will serve several purposes:

First, it will give us a systematic approach to understand and address key barriers to the growth of SEs in the Philippines. Second, with the potential for SEs to address gaps in the Philippines national development goals, the Study will help serve as a decision-making resource or reference for those such as the public sector to determine the most strategic opportunities to grow the SE space. Third, the study can guide a wide range of ecosystem players to broaden their understanding of the role they can play and the new opportunities for collaboration and partnership.

The Study provides us with an exciting opportunity to move forward in achieving our national development goals. It is also an opportunity to enact smart strategies that get ahead of several national and multilateral developments and trends.

Multilateral partners such as ADB and the UN have reaffirmed their commitment to building more resilience and sustainable growth through effective partnerships that mobilize private sector capital and blended finance, promote gender equality and climate resilience, and help drive inclusive growth.

Given the convergence of interests across multilateral, public, private and civil society stakeholders in driving inclusive growth in the Philippines, it is a pleasure to have IIX share with us the results of their study for strengthening social entrepreneurship.

IIX is a global organization with the mission to build a more inclusive world as the foundation for sustainable peace. IIX has been working in the Philippines and Asia for almost a decade, helping enterprises grow and raise capital; connecting enterprises to investors and a larger ecosystem of support through the world’s largest crowdfunding platform for impact investing; developing innovative financial products such as the Women’s Livelihood Bond to benefit 385,000 underserved women in the Philippines and other Southeast Asian countries; and training larger corporate and ecosystem players to be able to run their own enterprise programs.

Roadmap for Strengthening Social Entrepreneurship in the Philippines
A Knowledge Sharing Event
20 November 2018, Tuesday, 2:00-4:45 PM
Auditorium C&D Asian Development Bank

Roadmap Description:

In partnership with ADB, IIX Foundation Singapore has created a Roadmap for Strengthening Social Entrepreneurship in the Philippines which provides a strategy and way forward for public, private and civil society players to advance the social entrepreneurship ecosystem to achieve national and sustainable development goals. The roadmap will discuss strategic, actionable solutions to building a vibrant SE ecosystem with the aim to achieve three key outcomes: (i) scaling social enterprises to work with inclusive businesses; (ii) building partnerships with public and private sector actors through innovative and blended finance; and (iii) aligning with global and multilateral goals to drive gender equality and unlock new sources of capital.

Knowledge Sharing Event Goals:

Present the roadmap in a knowledge-sharing event (to be attended by Philippine government officials, policy makers and social enterprise stakeholders), and engage in an insightful discussion with ecosystem experts on the roadmap and more broadly on the social enterprise ecosystem in the Philippines. Galvanize support and build momentum for the implementation of the solutions in the roadmap and get feedback from the experts on implementation considerations.