Steps to create a Sustainable Ecosystem for Social Enterprise

With governments all over the world attempting to play an active role in mobilizing social enterprise and empowering social innovations, one would think that the social enterprise ecosystem is thriving and is having a profound impact on society as we speak. Well, unfortunately the policy driven governmental support isn't enough to sustain the ecosystems that are being created. The article by Forbes: " Why We Aren’t Getting the Full Benefit of Social Innovation—and What the Government Should Do About It ", is a good starting point for understanding the why. From this article, I identify two key tasks that the government should have a direct role in to create a Sustainable Ecosystem where the Social Enterprises can thrive and grow.

During my time, as an exchange student, in the Baltic States and Nordic Nations I had visited quite a few government sponsored start-up conventions and seminars. The majority of the northern European governments being socialist-inclined means that their agendas align with social enterprise when it comes to new founding companies. The two key activities that struck me the government's there focused on were namely: Finance and Leadership, which are very crucial in creating a framework which can sustain ecosystems for social enterprises.

Finance,

Social enterprises experience challenges in securing support and financing for their ventures. A lack of collateral to secure loans and poor support structures are inhibitors for social enterprises to grow. A major issue is that many social entrepreneurs report a lack of access to capital, whereas impact investors report a lack of investment ready ventures. This shows that there is a  mismatch between the needs and knowledge of social entrepreneurs and investors respectively. Securing financing for the development and implementation of services is a crucial component for any social innovation. The government should be helping in developing diversified funding possibilities for social innovation initiatives and social enterprises. And at the same time, support the development of a customized financial support system of financiers and intermediary organizations. Micro loans and social banking , Social investment funds, Innovation checks and Crowd funding schemes are a few promising ways in which the government can help create a support structure for social ventures on a large scale. 

Leadership,

 To build and sustain a capacity to solve the complex challenges in the domain of social  development, a league of competent and resourceful leaders are required. Competence development and cultivation is needed to successfully lead any complex processes, to deliver support to social innovations, and to develop priors that match these needs. The government needs to increase formal and informal education on social innovation while actively supporting progressive pedagogies that allow students to become producers of solutions and proponents for change. Molding leadership and competence development within the established innovation and business support systems is one way to do it. Education systems that allow both academic and non-academic sectors to engage in social innovations practice and theory, and build proficiency related to tools for social innovation and entrepreneurship, are crucial in this respect.