Social entrepreneurs push for local development
-A A +AThursday, October 18, 2012
THREE major non-governmental organization (NGO) networks conduct learning sessions on social entrepreneurship to further social equity and empower practical innovation for poverty reduction.
“We gather to share experiences of the country’s social enterprises that have significantly reduced poverty in their immediate communities and spurred local economic development,” Philippine Social Enterprise Network (Philsen) Executive Director Lu Gargarita said.
Philsen partnered with Consuelo Foundation, and the Foundation for a Sustainable Society Inc. (FSSI), for the three-day conference entitled “Social Entrepreneurship: Promoting Social Equity and Empowerment of the Poor” the Nature’s Village Hotel today, Thursday.
Gargarita said: “We have among the country’s best social enterprises in Negros. We have the Alter Trade Corporation, Negros Institute for Rural Development (Nird), Grassroots Agro-Industrial Corporation (GAIC), Upscale, Association of Negros Producers (ANP) and the multi-awarded Alternative Indigenous Development Foundation Inc. (AIDFI) that has changed the lives of poor farmers and farm workers immensely.”
The said social enterprise NGOs are joined by Bote Central/Philippine Coffee Alliance, Center for Empowerment and Resource Development (Cerd), Messy Bessy, and Oikocredit Southeast Asia.
“These social enterprises carry the triple-bottomline of generating positive financial, social, and environmental effects that have sparked interest among policy-makers in Congress and some local governments. We shall persevere in our work and also push for a better policy environment for social enterprises to flourish across the country,” Gargarita said.
Representative Teddy Casiño, Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Small Businesses and Entrepreneurship Development, will also present, in the conference, the pending House Bill 6085 that tackles Poverty Reduction through Social Entrepreneurship.
The participants will visit two social enterprises in the province, the Upscale/TFM’s Muscovado Processing area in La Castellana and the Nird organic fertilizer plant in Sagay City. (Karl G. Ombion)
Published in the Sun.Star Bacolod newspaper on October 18, 2012.
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