Social enterprises and decreasing vulnerability Europe and CIS The issue in the framework of UNDP...
Transcript of Social enterprises and decreasing vulnerability Europe and CIS The issue in the framework of UNDP...
Social enterprises and decreasing vulnerability
Europe and CIS
The issue in the framework of UNDP Bratislava Regional Centre’s priorities
Europe and CIS
Outline
What is BRC doing Approach to vulnerability Why economy is seen as appropriate for
decreasing vulnerability? Next steps
Europe and CIS
BRC architecture and territorial coverage Three thematic dimensions (“practices”) with set of sub-
practices Democratic governance Environmental Poverty
HD, MDGs and poverty monitoring (with social inclusion increasingly gaining in significance)
Civil society engagement for poverty alleviation MDG support Private business engagement, UN Secretary General Global Compact
Initiative Poverty reduction and trade
Cross-cutting areas Gender ICT HIV/AIDS
Country support team
Europe and CIS
Why involved in the RBEC region? Major challenges
Strong core-periphery disparities ‘Working poor’ phenomenon Unreformed social services Old industrialized regions (depressive
urban areas) Single-factory towns poverty Rural poverty Increase in inequality Emergence of visible of “losers” of
transition (“vulnerable groups”)
Europe and CIS
Why involved in the region? Increase in inequality
Gini coefficient increase during transition
0.060
0.054
0.009
0.105
0.023
0.124
0.183
0.179
0.131
0.046
0.123
0.118
0.091
0.174
0.081
0.189
0.084
0.000 0.050 0.100 0.150 0.200 0.250 0.300 0.350 0.400 0.450 0.500
Czech Republic
Hungary
Belarus
Bulgaria
Slovakia
Romania
Armenia
Moldova
Latvia
Lithuania
Kyrgyzstan
FYR Macedonia
Poland
Georgia
Estonia
Tajikistan
Serbia and Montenagro
1989 orclosestavailable
Increase in2004 orclosest
Europe and CIS
Approach to vulnerability – who are vulnerable?
Group affiliation Roma? IDPs? Women? Youth?
Individual status dimension Disabled Pre-retirement age unemployed Long-term unemployed Level of education, qualification Single parents
Functional dimension Isolation (inaccessible social and physical environment) Access (lack of) to basic infrastructures
Europe and CIS
Dealing with vulnerability – addressing…
Poverty and the risk of falling into poverty (not just monetary)
Lack of educational opportunities Inadequate personal (physical) security, Poor housing Poor access to health care Closely related to the concept of ‘human
security’ (security beyond security of nation-states’ borders)
Europe and CIS
Closer look at HD and HS perspective to vulnerability
Vulnerability as a set of: Socio-economic risks (household dimension) Personal risks (individual dimension) Environmental risks (territorial and spatial
dimension) Vulnerability as capacity deficits to:
identify and avoid threats Identify group-specific and factor-specific
instruments to attenuate their consequences
Europe and CIS
Social enterprises as an instrument to address vulnerability Entities sharing characteristics of business and NGO/CSO
sector Main objective – achieving social goals and not profit (NGO
‘face’) Major instrument for reaching the objective – operation
following business models Dual role of the ‘target group’:
Active participants Major client
Particularly suitable for excluded groups Different from:
Market providers of social services Entities distributing social assistance
Europe and CIS
Unlike targeted “group approach”, social enterprises can Target the assistance and increase both its
effectiveness and efficiency Provide wide range of ‘positive externalities’ Actively involve the communities Decrease ‘free riders’ perception and thus improve
social cohesion Decrease dependency Decrease overall costs of addressing vulnerability and
social inclusion Be ‘group neutral’ and open to various vulnerable
groups Falls into EC priority work on “social economy”
Europe and CIS
Why social enterprises for vulnerable groups? The Roma…
Social inclusion of Roma faces problems despite the plethora of initiatives? Because of the plethora of initiatives?
Policies so far contributing to dependence ‘Capacity’ of the stakeholders rarely being developed Strong corporate interests involved in ‘Roma inclusion’ vulnerability-based approach necessary – targeting
Roma because they are vulnerable and not because they are Roma
Social enterprises can be helpful to decrease dependency and social distance
Europe and CIS
The current project
A regional initiative launched by BRC in 2006 to assess the feasibility and practice of Social Enterprises in NMS, the Western Balkans, and the CIS
Set of national studies in a regional framework
Common denominator – post-socialist specifics of the “third sector”
Country specifics – address nationally-relevant challenges regarding vulnerability and social inclusion
Europe and CIS
The regional component…
Introduces regionally adequate definitions of social enterprises Estimates contributions of social enterprises to the process of social
inclusion (both from a social and economic point of view) Suggests criteria for measurement (three economic and three social
criteria). Economic:
An economic activity producing goods and/or selling services A degree of autonomy A trend towards paid work
Social: An explicit aim to benefit the community or a specific group of people Decision-making power not based on capital ownership Exclusion of profit-maximising organizations
Europe and CIS
The future perspectives
Within this particular project Future support to legal frameworks (in Poland and Serbia) Launch of publication in Barcelona Project Development based on findings
Broader framework Constituting “social economy” as a programmatic area of
BRC Integrating the work on supporting social economy into
overall vulnerability-targeted endeavors Linking social enterprises to social inclusion monitoring
(sets of indicators, monitoring frameworks)