Social innovation has a particular relevance to development process.
Trillions of dollars of aid money and loans flowed
into the developing world over decades that followed World War II,
but the results have been highly mixed.
Development programs often involve foreign assistance or ODA,
for public health and infrastructure projects
that do not always have the desired outcomes.
For example, a considerable amount of development aid was funneled into
the construction of public works projects that
focus more on spectacle rather than substance.
Gleaming new infrastructure projects,
like empty sports stadiums and lavish presidential palaces,
arose amidst a sea of poverty,
which led to unaccounted for aid funds and mounting loan repayments.
While the flow of development aid to
corrupt governments allowed the officials to mass personal fortunes,
considerable amounts also went directly to the most impoverished zones.
Yet here, some advanced technologies introduced by aid agencies
often had little impact among
populations with little understanding of what to do with them,
or involve complex machinery that was difficult to repair and maintain.
Many development schemes also involve the import of
surplus goods from donor nations with little use in recipient nations,
or inadvertently competed with local industries.
The inflow of foreign aid to developing world did not always misfire,
but the end results inevitably limited the impact of past development efforts.
Today, there have been many improvements in the delivery of ODAs,
yet the need to target the aid, carefully still persists.
In addition, as more and more nations emerge out of
developing nations status into the category of middle income nations,
there needs to be more sustainable models of funding that can empower
individuals to earn a living on their
own rather than depend on aid money for subsistence.
Now ultimately, many of
the persistent social and environmental problems that developing nations face,
may best be solved by local social enterprises that may discover
better and more sustainable solutions than the outside or the experts of the past.
Therefore, establish a culture of social entrepreneurship and
building an ecosystem that can encourage individuals to launch startups,
there is an increasingly important part of major development programs.
Creating a vibrant startup or
celebration program within developing countries can be a challenge,
but we can find a number of interesting examples from around the world.
For instance, the UNDP in Vietnam in 2016 began in collaboration with HATCH!
VENTURES to encourage young people to achieve the SDG goals,
through the introduction of new technologies,
ideas, prototypes, and creative solutions.
The program began in 2016 with the Social Innovation Camp and
Social Innovation Summit to help spread
awareness of the importance of social entrepreneurship.
During the following year, the SDG challenge of
2017 attracted teams from around the country.
A total of four teams was selected out of the end of 2017,
out of 25 finalists and received
startup funding to implement their social entrepreneurship plans.
The UNDP HATCH! collaboration is part of a large number of similar experiments
around the world as various organizations attempt to find workable models,
providing training, capital, and mentorship to entrepreneurs
who can find sustainable business models for
solving social and environmental problems.
Unlike previous development at aid efforts,
the private sector is increasingly being recognized as
a key stakeholder for the achievement of the SDG 2030 Agenda.
We should keep in mind that there have been an artificial sense
that governments and international organizations
should take care of public concerns,
while private companies should focus on the pursuit of profits.
However, despite every thinking creates a false sense of division of
labor and can prevent creative partnerships between the public and private sectors.
The establishment of partnerships across the public private divide and empower
individuals to join together for
a common cause are essential prerequisites for social innovation.
Therefore, the establishment of an entrepreneurship platforms to achieve
SDG goals in developing countries can bring together investment funds, academia,
technology companies, local governments,
and international organizations together as
clear examples where social innovation can
provide new solutions to problems of development.
Ban Ki-moonDistinguished Chair Professor
