Ashoka
Social entrepreneurs are first responders to the COVID-19 crisis. This is why they need support.
Social entrepreneurs – innovators with a social mission – are vital first responders to the COVID-19 crisis and are uniquely positioned to represent a new standard for today’s change leaders and governments.Yet social entrepreneurs do not have access to the resources they need and only rarely have a seat at global and local decision-making tables. This needs to change. The 60-member COVID Response Alliance for Social Entrepreneurs, representing over 50,000 social entrepreneurs, today releases its Action Agenda outlining 25 concrete interventions to support social entrepreneurship during COVID-19.
Ashoka insight
A report on funding systems change initiated by Ashoka in partnership with the Skoll Foundation, McKinsey, Catalyst 2030, Echoing Green, Co-Impact, and Schwab Foundation and launched at the World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting 2020, articulates how social entrepreneurs have the knowledge, experience, and existing on-the-ground infrastructure. They can play a key role in revitalizing the sustainable development agenda to build more inclusive shockproof and resilient markets and societies.
To continue to play their part, social entrepreneurs need swift access to capital and support, and they need a seat at the decision-making table. This is why in May of this year, the World Economic Forum initiated the development of the COVID Response Alliance for Social Entrepreneurship, bringing together 60 leading organizations that collectively support over 50,000 entrepreneurs reaching over 1 billion people, to raise awareness of the vital role these front-line entrepreneurs play and to mobilize greater support for them.