Daily Times

The peculiar context of Pakistan, where the COAS has to make public the seriousness of illness of economy (perhaps economy is too serious a matter to entrust to economists in civilian governments) and where a vast majority of Pakistanis are always fooled with fabricated figures and exploited with unfair taxation system; makes social entrepreneurship not a social nicety but a technical necessity.

Civic or social entrepreneurship is a concept that is seen as instrument of change in policies and economies across the regions in this uneven corporatised world.

Since the volume of capacity and cash targeting is increasing, social entrepreneurship is on the rise in capitalist economies and in our country too. However, the increasing popularity has linear relationship with the uncertainty about what exactly a social entrepreneur is how it functions.

Social entrepreneurship has been a case study of identity crises and endured the challenges in attaining a clear definition, therefore it appears that on a practicing level, it still remains unclear. Consequently, the CSR, NGO-isation of social development, commissioned consulting, business incubators managed by private and elite academia, commercial accelerators, social business and philanthropy; all get conveniently categorised as social entrepreneurship.

Women are almost twice as likely to reach the top ranks in social enterprises as they are in mainstream businesses and more than 90 per cent of companies that focus on tackling social problems have at least one woman on their leadership team

What distinguishes social entrepreneurs from business entrepreneurs, even from socially responsible businesses, is adopting a mission to create and sustain social value. According to the late Prof J Gregory, social entrepreneurs play the role of change agents in the social sector, by recognising and relentlessly pursuing new opportunities to serve that mission engaging in a process of continuous innovation, adaptation, and learning, acting boldly without being limited by resources currently in hand, and exhibiting heightened accountability to the constituencies served and for the outcomes created. This means that the social entrepreneurs are rare breed.

Like men, there are ambitious women too. Many smart women are ready to undertake the additional roles of visionaries, leaders and innovators besides being nurturers in social occupations and are creating success stories. Social entrepreneurship can be one of the effective ways to achieve economic empowerment of women in general and survivors of violence in particular who gain financial and social independence by investing in their technical skills.

Women are almost twice as likely to reach the top ranks in social enterprises as they are in mainstream businesses and more than 90 per cent of companies that focus on tackling social problems have at least one woman on their leadership team. Yet the profession is continuously being projected as the second class business category as it is more or should be more focused on creating and scaling up social good rather than monetary profits.

Former Chilean President Michelle Bachelet in her address at the 2012 Social Enterprise World Forum in Rio de Janeiro, bluntly declared “women are natural social entrepreneurs”. Ironically, the women who produce more than half of the world’s food and control about $20 trillion in consumer spending, experience relatively high exclusion in shared economies. Centuries old patriarchal barriers and gender differences remain almost unshakable in social entrepreneurship as well. How even most intelligent and competent women are pushed aside in a male dominated society is not a secret.

At times I really get worried about the un-estimated damages that are and would be caused to genuine women social entrepreneurs in Pakistan, who endeavour to carry on without push of the class and pull of the benevolent sexism. The person who does not know the nuts and bolts of social entrepreneurship and yet is trying to introduce oneself as a social entrepreneur in elite foras, academic circles, development sectors or obtaining high profile awards through an inherited family business is definitely not a social entrepreneur. The relevant UN agencies, universities and technical aid agencies must take notice of this casualness and review their in-house practices own parameters as well.

In my modest capacity as a generation X civic entrepreneur, I would like to remind all young people especially women to learn to be patient, humble and remind themselves that successful founders and entrepreneurs are made through their ability to execute hard work by using the head and empathising with the identified social problem. Working smarter is advantageous but working harder is never out of fashion. The predisposition to get spoon fed, connected to high profile ones in an instant and paid -projects bound innovation in influential academia are detrimental to the institutional and technical sustainability of social entrepreneurship and spiritual growth of the entrepreneur.

The entrepreneurial success, sense and sensation are connected to the comprehensive context of a country. A report of the international Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) Project concluded that the correlation between the level of entrepreneurial activity and economic growth is greater than 70 per cent; all nations with high levels of entrepreneurial activity have above average rates of economic growth; and economies with higher rates of entrepreneurial activity are stronger and more competitive.

Pakistani civilian government can benefit its economy and blend happiness of people with financial stability through transparently regulated social entrepreneurship. The core conditions for this require intellectual risks taking and integrity. However, in a society where conflicts of interests are lawfully ignored, this becomes very tricky and testing.

The writer is a gender expert, researcher, activist, Ashoka Fellow and a free thinker. She authored “Successful Social entrepreneur-heart and head together”. She can be reached at dr.r.perveen@gmail.com

Published in Daily Times, October 16^th 2017.