In spirit of collaboration, Acumen, a non-profit social venture capital fund, announced today its first recipients of technical assistance support through the Technical Assistance (TA) Initiative, a partnership effort with The Dow Chemical Company.

The TA Initiative was announced in May and represents the first phase in the launch of Acumen’s corporate engagement policy.

“I am tremendously excited about the potential this initiative holds, and the innovative implications for Acumen’s mission of tackling poverty.  This partnership with the private sector paves the way for new hybrid business models across the region and beyond,” said Duncan Onyango, Acumen’s East Africa Regional Director.

Ross McLean, President of Dow Sub Saharan Africa, is also seeing value in such partnerships, saying that there are “some very interesting innovations out there amongst the social entrepreneurs that we have been talking to.  I see potential linkages and I think it’s a fantastic networking opportunity to create a community response together.”

What role does Dow play?  Through its 2012 Clinton Global Initiative commitment, the Dow Sustainability Corps employee engagement program was established to match interested and capable employees with NGOs, social entrepreneurs, and government agencies.  It has committed support to Acumen’s portfolio companies on key business challenges.

The TA Initiative recipients are Western Seed, which produces seed varieties in Kenya to improve farmers’ productivity, Sanergy, which builds sanitation infrastructure in the slums of Nairobi, Virtual City, which develops mobile solutions to increase smallholder farmers’ income, and Sproxil, which uses mobile technology to detect counterfeit drugs.

During the event, with many student attendees wanting to learn more about social entrepreneurship and innovation, an audience member raised a question that delved into corporate social responsibility (CSR) – Is a company involved in CSR a social enterprise?

From a legal perspective, Indiana University Professors Robert Katz and Anthony Page argue that social enterprise and CSR can differ even though they share a common goal of societal good.

Peter King, who is the founder of UK’s first merchant services social enterprise Ethecol, also notes a difference between CSR and social enterprise.  Although King is not too keen on definitions, he found that CSR emphasizes a lot on reporting and has an institutional demeanour.

The Government of Manitoba adds to this discussion by definitively stating that a company involved in CSR is not a social enterprise.  Although companies with CSR initiatives invest profits into the community, their core purpose is to generate wealth for their shareholders.  On the other hand, community impact is embedded into the primary goal of a social enterprise.

The China Business Council for Sustainable Development also chimes in by presenting a fundamental difference between CSR and social enterprise.  Unlike companies with CSR activities, social enterprises create direct impact in the community through their business products or processes.

The Changemaker Showcase is an event designed to feature TED Talk-style presentations by local social entrepreneurs, followed by discussions to inspire students to explore the possibilities of becoming change agents in their communities.

Today, Ashoka Canada will be hosting another Changemaker Showcase at Ryerson University.

Editor’s note: The Changemaker Showcase at Ryerson University is not hosted by Social Spark as originally indicated, and was removed as a result.

There’s the towering Marina Bay Sands casino topped with a 150-metre wide infinity swimming pool, the Esplanade arts venue shaped like the nation’s beloved durian, and the newly built Marina Bay Financial Centre, which DBS Bank now calls home.

“Since moving our headquarters to the Marina Bay Financial Centre last year, DBS has cemented the Marina Bay area as Singapore’s new financial downtown.  We are excited to be here as Marina Bay will be a catalyst for Singapore’s future growth,” said Karen Ngui, Managing Director and Head of Group Strategic Marketing and Communications at DBS Bank.

“As the largest bank in Singapore, one that believes in giving back to the community, we also want to make the Bay a vibrant locale and a ‘People’s Bay’, one in which everyone can enjoy.”

DBS Bank has made it clear that it wants to put the public back in public space.  Initiatives that they will undertake this year include free sailing experiences on the Marina Bay, the DBS Marina Regatta dragon boat and water festival in May, the POSB PAssion Run for Kids fundraising in September, and the DBS Social Enterprise Special in November.

At the core of DBS Bank’s corporate social responsibility efforts is to champion social entrepreneurship. As a bank, they have developed a Social Enterprise Package to ease financial barriers for social enterprises, and further support them through grant funding.

DBS Bank plans to invest SGD 10 million over the next three years in the initiatives, aiming to engage the community and spread vibrancy in Singapore’s new financial downtown.

Those who realize it are adopting a concept called Creating Shared Value (CSV).  A term first introduced on the Harvard Business Review, CSV is about moving past CSR principles which focus on doing good, as a result of societal pressures, typically for the sake of guarding reputation.  Instead, CSV is ensuring that there is value created for everybody through the chain.  This includes everyone from shareholders to farmers.  The rationale for CSV is a method for companies to continue in the market.  This means to make sure that coffee is made available on grocery shelves.

Sustainable cocoa farming is one of the challenges facing chocolate makers today.  A vital ingredient in Cadbury’s chocolate products is Ghanaian cocoa.  But in 2008, farmers in Ghana were only able to produce 40 percent of the country’s potential yield due to problems with pests, disease, and ageing cocoa trees.  Productivity continues to decline and income from cocoa decreases.  Consequently, there is no incentive for the next generation of cocoa farmers to enter the industry.

In response, Cadbury launched a Cadbury Cocoa Partnership in 2008 that would seek to build thriving cocoa communities in Africa, Southeast Asia, and the Caribbean.  They are committing £45 million ($73 million) over a ten-year period to promote sustainable livelihoods for one million farmers, increase crop yields for farmers in the program by 20 percent by 2012 and 100 percent by 2018, create new sources of income in 100 cocoa-farming communities, and address key issues affecting the cocoa sector such as child labour, health, gender diversity, and environmental sustainability.

From training and technical assistance for producing quality cocoa and higher yields, to expanding access to finance, and ensuring a guaranteed fair price for farmers’ beans, Cadbury estimates the program to bring in as much as $350 million in additional revenues per year.  There is value for everyone.

Since launching, the program has grown beyond expectation.  Currently, the program is operating in over 200 communities in Ghana and aims to support a target of 500 communities.

Milsted adds that in CSV, we must address down the chain to the farmer.  Change doesn’t happen overnight but it has already been past the point where the food industry as a whole needs to ensure viable production in the future.  Companies need to work with other organizations – these include donor organizations, trading organizations, and the farmers themselves – to bring best practices together.   The issues are different in every country but understanding what drives the people along the value chain will help us figure out how to secure the future.

Similar to its initiative in Singapore, DBS China will provide four social enterprises in Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, and Chengdu grants to offer training for over 2,300 underprivileged individuals over the next two years.  The aim is to help them acquire skills for employment.

These programs are:

1. Fuping Jiazheng – baby nursing training for migrant women
2. Puki Design – graphic design training for the hearing impaired   
3. World of Art Brut Culture – artistic talent discovery classes
4. Dialogue in the Dark – skills training for the visually impaired

In a statement by DBS China, the company describes their corporate social responsibility activities centering on supporting social enterprises through a “teach a man to fish” mentality, which they believe will solve social problems and promote public welfare sustainably.

The amount of the grants have not been disclosed.

Japan’s consumer products giant Unicharm Corporation is learning.  The makers of female hygiene products and diapers pledge to bring affordable products to 36 million low-income women in the Middle East, North Africa, and Asia.  This is the type of big business change that Polak had imagined when revealing the false assumptions to alleviate poverty.  It is the notion that it is possible for business to create economic and social wealth responsibly and for all.

Unicharm’s expansion is part of the Business Call to Action (BCtA) global initiative to reduce poverty and promote sustainable development through inclusive business.  Under this expansion, the company’s annual production of diapers and feminine napkins is expected to more than triple from 10 billion and 12 billion by the year 2020.

Localization

Localization is key to the project.  Forty percent of Unicharm’s total hygiene products are expected to be manufactured and sold to low-income consumers in the region of expansion.  This means the company will employ an additional 8,000 underemployed women throughout Egypt, India, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, Thailand, and Vietnam, which will nearly double its female workforce in these countries.  To put things into perspective, the company currently has over 10,000 employees.

“Through this initiative, we will expand our reach while alleviating poverty and supporting and empowering millions of women across the Middle East/North Africa and Asia,” Unicharm Corp. CEO Takahisa Takahara said in a statement.  “We are delighted to contribute in this way to sustainable and inclusive development, and to further demonstrate that good business practices and good global citizenship complement each other.”

Radical Affordability

Unicharm is able to offer feminine napkins and diapers to low-income consumers previously unable to afford them by localizing production, streamlining manufacturing, and simplifying packaging.  One of the other myths about eradicating poverty is that we can donate people out of poverty.  Well we can’t.  For starters, donations run the risk of drying up.  This approach also assumes that people at the bottom of the economic pyramid are too poor to invest in their own future when in reality, money exists.  Therefore, rather than relying on limited-time donations, solutions that combine stable income and radically affordable products and services are more effective in helping eliminate poverty.

“This is a great example of a company proactively contributing to the third Millennium Development Goal (MDG), promoting gender equality and empowering women,” BCtA Acting Program Manager Sahba Sobhani said.  “By creating hygiene products that are affordable to the poor and employing women in areas where full-time jobs are scarce, Unicharm is both expanding its business and enhancing quality of life for women in the Middle East/North Africa and Asia.”  In other words, they’re making money and doing good.  And proving that these words can exist in the same sentence.

To begin, it will provide a total of $340,000 SGD ($278,000 USD) in project grants to four social enterprises in Singapore.  They are:

A-changin, a social enterprise that provides training and employment opportunities to women in need. DBS will provide A-changin with a project grant of $100,000 SGD, which will be used by the company to set up a second sewing lab and for working capital purposes.

Adrenalin Events & Education, an events management company that employs youths-at-risk, ex-offenders, the hearing-impaired, and wheelchair-bound individuals.  DBS will provide a project grant of $100,000 SGD, which will be used by Adrenalin to expand its audio, visuals, effects, and launch mechanisms department.

Aii, a candy wrapping company that employs hearing-impaired individuals.  DBS will provide a project grant of $40,000 SGD, which will be used by Aii to set up an e-commerce site, purchase an in-house candy wrapper printer and provide staff training.

Bizlink Centre Singapore, an organisation that provides comprehensive employment services for disadvantaged people.  DBS will provide a grant of $100,000 SGD, which will be used to set up a new bakery social enterprise.

These social enterprises were selected based on the sustainability of their business models, level of social impact, and how innovative their proposed projects are.

DBS also plans to launch banking packages for social enterprises in China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, and Taiwan in 2013.

Using circus arts, folklore, theatre, dance, and music, his One Drop Foundation promotes education and public awareness of water issues.  Call it the Cirque du Soleil for water.  In addition, the organization’s technical projects improve access to and responsible usage of water and provide microfinance loans for communities to launch income-generating projects.

Laliberté is no stranger to using the arts for social change.  For instance, Cirque du Monde uses circus programs to motivate children in South Africa with HIV to follow their treatments.  In Mongolia, workshops were held in juvenile prisons.  In Australia, social circus was used to help women survivors of sexual violence.  By targeting at-risk youth, Cirque du Monde provides a springboard to a new stage in their life.

Circus arts can be an effective tool for social change.  It calls for teamwork and a combination of strengths and talents – helping people develop a sense of belonging.  It allows for freedom and creativity and demands perseverance and discipline.

“When you pair [access to water] up with using arts and culture to raise awareness, to bring about life-lasting changes in the way whole communities manage this vital resource, there is no telling what these populations will be able to achieve.  That’s what makes One Drop’s approach unique,” said Laliberté in a release on a new partnership announced yesterday with the Maharaja Life Foundation.

So far One Drop Foundation has deployed projects in Nicaragua, Honduras, Haiti, El Salvador and India and plans to expand into Southeast Asia and West Africa.

The winners, who were selected from nearly 200 entrants, each received a €10,000 cash prize and a mentoring program by Ashoka.  They will also have their names featured on a new commemorative Ben & Jerry’s flavour in 2013.

“When Ben and I set up the company in 1978, we believed that giving back to the community was as important as making great-tasting ice cream.  We certainly think we’ve found those same values, not only in the five winners, but in many of this year’s entrants and we’re very excited to see how all these young businesses grow,” said Jerry Greenfield.

Join Our Core was launched by Ben & Jerry’s in the belief that as businesses grow they should share their prosperity.  The company will now support and nurture the winners who have demonstrated they share that vision.

The winners are:

• Archipelago – one of the largest communities of young entrepreneurs in Western Europe that help young people create sophisticated businesses through events, think tanks, and crowd sourced funding initiatives.
• FairMail – a social enterprise that produces fair-trade greeting cards from pictures taken by at-risk teenagers in Peru, India, and soon Morocco.
• Mattecentrum – provides free math tutoring for up to 70,000 young people every month
• Play31 – uses the unifying power of football (soccer) to bring people together who have been torn apart by war.
• Rubies in the Rubble – addresses social issues of unemployment, social exclusion, and waste through the production of chutney and jams

The organization began in Sweden in 2010 and has expanded to Ghana and Russia in 2011.  Now, they are looking for social entrepreneurs in Rwanda in a partnership with telecommunications provider, Millicom, also known as Tigo.

According to AllAfrica, they are looking for two people with an early-stage, innovative, and scalable idea that improves the lives of children to give each person $25,000 each year for the next three years.  Applications began yesterday and are accepted until September 21.

There is preference for ideas that can leverage Tigo’s competencies or technologies.  While addressing the press, corporate social responsibility officer at Tigo Nina Claudia Ndabanenze emphasized that this initiative is beneficial for both the company and the country as a whole.

Tigo, which operates in 13 emerging markets in South America and Africa, is said to be the first company in all of Africa to introduce this kind of corporate social responsibility activity.

Photo from Reach for Change.