Macro-level Solutions

When you hear the term “social innovation” you may immediately think of a social enterprise or a single organization working towards creating social impact. However, this week’s readings have shown the importance of thinking about social innovation as a macro-level approach, looking at governments as active actors and facilitators rather than being unable to meet demand. 

Bolsa Familia, a program that grants Brazil’s poor families with cash transfers,  is an example of governments actively pursuing policies through a socially innovative lens. The program has been deemed successful, covering about 50 million Brazilians in 2011. Mothers receive cash funds if they meet certain requirements such as making sure their children attend school, attending certain classes, and going in for routinely checkups. Looking at the impact of the program, the idea seems like a no-brainer: address the multiple facets of poverty through creating incentives and a safety net for your citizens. The thought-process behind the program, which originated from Mexico, is simple: rejecting the idea that low-income communities simply chose not to send their children to school or not receive healthcare services, but actually provide the safety net for them to do so. The Brazilian government took a microeconomic approach at a macroeconomic level, creating large impact throughout the country.

In class, we often discuss the challenges a social venture might face such as lack of funding, the inability to reach its target population, or its non-sustainable business model. In theory, countries’ governments would have better access to funding, its population, and other important impact factors. It is important to recognize that is not the case for various nations, which is why a market for grass-root projects exists. Certain policies and resources need to be set in place and available in order for governments to foster innovation and perhaps participate in it themselves.  The right environment for social innovation to thrive depends on a magnitude of things. For example, Paul Carttar’s article discusses American individualist culture, which he reasons is why the government is not seen as a facilitator of social innovation. However, he also points out that even the most well-known organizations for social innovation, such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation,  “easily the largest private foundation in the world, awarded a total of ‘only’ $3.2 billion last year, less than 20% of which was focused on the US.” This shows that governments continue to play a large role in this area. Government investment in research and social innovation initiatives is a way of allocating resources to more efficient uses and could prove to be beneficial to its citizens. Macro-level solutions such as Bolsa familia should be further pursued in order to provide necessary services to the world's population.