Social Enterprises to Unlock the Potential in Latin America

Ashoka, a leading non-profit network of social innovators and entrepreneurs, has entered into a partnership with Colceramica, a large building materials company in Colombia, to help raise the living standards of people in the poorest urban areas of Colombia. The partnership is helping the residents to install affordable ceramic tiling to improve sanitation in their homes, routing the distribution through local community leaders who understand the needs of the people.

This partnership is an example of the emerging trend of social enterprises in Latin America to find effective solutions to local problems using models of self-sufficiency. Philanthropic efforts have not been able to solve the widespread problems of the region. Maria Emilia Correa, an expert in sustainable entrepreneurship in Chile, says, "Philanthropy makes a lot of sense for some things, but when you can make a business out of solving a social or environmental problem, you have sustainability in the real sense, because it's going to work even if you have no donations."

Ms. Correa is currently working with a team on Sistema B, a social entrepreneurship project that aims to follow the "B-Corporation" model emerging in the United States, whereby a new type of company can be established with a goal to use a business approach to create social benefit. Latin America is increasingly becoming a focus of attention for social entrepreneurs who believe that a "values based" business model is the best way to solve challenging social problems.

Latin America will host the Social World Enterprise Forum in Rio de Janeiro for the first time in October, 2012. The forum is hosted by NESsT, a non-profit organization that supports social entrepreneurship in emerging economies. The forum aims to generate an increasing level of awareness among the people, organizations and governments in Latin America to lay more emphasis on the social enterprise model to promote sustainable growth.

The increasing trend of social entrepreneurship is also evident in Brazil. A recent survey of 140 social enterprises in Brazil, conducted by the Aspen Network of Development Entrepreneurs discovered that 64 percent of these enterprises were actually operating as social businesses, and did not depend on donations. Even the remaining organizations were partially relying on donations, and aspired to achieve total financial self-sufficiency in the near future.

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