Social enterprises must become more than tinkering of existing capitalist system: Eran

From left: Roxanne Abdulali, Project Manager – Oxfam GB Regional Office, Thailand, 2. Neelakandan Arulalan, Sivanarul Food Products, Kilinochchi, Prasad Rathnayaka DGM,Bio Foods, Dr. Lalith Welamedage, CEO, Lanka Social Ventures and Bojan Kolundzija, Country Director, Oxfam Sri Lanka 

Eran Wickramaratne, Deputy Minister of Public Enterprise Development attending the two-day international conference organized by Lanka Social Ventures ‘Social enterprises and SMEs for sustainable development and poverty reduction’ organised by Lanka Social Ventures stated that social enterprise must become more than tinkering of the existing capitalist system and be a truly transformative movement. He also highlighted the necessity for legal recognition of social businesses.
Lanka Social Ventures organized this conference in partnership with Oxfam, National Enterprise Development Authority (NEDA), British Council, Good Market and VEGA BIZ+, Lanka Impact Investors Network (LIIN) and Social Enterprise Lanka. 
Over 230 local and international participants attended the-two day conference. Local and international speakers from diverse sectors spoke at the plenary discussions. Jonathan Alles CEO of Hatton National Bank, Chandula Abeywickrema representing National Savings Bank, Deputy Governor of Central Bank Asoka Handagama, Dr Amanad Kiesel Founder Member of Good Market, Head of Social Enterprise UK Peter Holbroke, OXFAM  GB regional office representative Roxanne Abdulali, representative from Grameen Capital India, Royston Braganza, representative from Unitus Capital Abhijit Rai, Anir Chowdry senior policy advisor to Bangladesh Prime Minister’s office,  Selyna Peiris, and  award winning social entrepreneur Shanaka Fernando were some of the key speakers at the conference.
In the opening speech of Dr Amanda Kiesel Founder member of Good Market pointed out that social enterprises combine traits of non-profit (mission-driven) and for profit (self-sustainable). SE’s are mid spectrum between non-profits and for-profits. The challenge is the change from the current economy to a social enterprise economy, which is a gradual replacing of systems. In a concluding note she stated “Every time we spend money, we are casting a vote for the kind of world we want”. 
Peter Holbrooke Head of Social Enterprise UK speaking at the conference highlighted the concerns emerging due to unsustainable consumption promoted through the dominant economic model. “Population is projected to be 9.5 billion, and increased life expectancy in most parts of the world. This and urbanization increase pressure on our eco systems and economic systems resulting in problems – pollution, poverty, health hazards along with climate change triggered environmental issues. Another serious issue as recognized by the World Economic Forum is the severe disparities in terms of how wealth is distributed. A very small segment of people holds the world’s wealth (top 1 percent of wealth holders have increased power and have thrived in the past several decades).
Award-winning social entrepreneur of Lentil as Anything Shanaka Ferenando in his speech stated that “traditional financial model has run its course. There are grave social problems (mental health issues) environmental issues that have driven people to focus on things more important than financial gain – such as community goodwill, creating communities, creating partnerships, kindness, and generosity”.
Bojan Kolundja Country Director of Oxfam Sri Lanka office and Dr. Lalith Welamedage CEO of Lanka Social Ventures gave an overview on the role of Lanka Social Ventures at the plenary two on the theme of livelihood development and poverty reduction through social enterprise.  Many social enterprises in Sri Lanka are operating in isolation. Support systems available at present are often based on personal relationships and do not always extend to social enterprises. Therefore, the ecosystem is unknotted so favourable to Social Enterprises.  Therefore, Lanka Social Ventures focuses on directing social entrepreneurs through coaching and mentoring support for social enterprises with monitoring over extended periods of time.
The recommendation from the session on contribution of social enterprises & SMEs to environmental sustainability was that businesses should not only focus on organic but also other sustainable practices such as energy efficiency, waste reduction etc.  An important recommendation from the session “Role of social enterprises in social inclusion, women and youth economic empowerment “was Social enterprises that are focused on inclusion must focus on the strengths of people and not on weaknesses or physical disabilities. When working with a group that is challenged by factors such as household work and lack of child care services, social enterprises have to seek creative ways of addressing such issues.
Concerns and recommendations emerging on day two which focused on the theme of social finances highlighted barriers faced by SME’s for raising capital through traditional methods and the need to explore alternative social financing options such as peer-to-peer lending, crowdfunding etc. Further the need to increase awareness among SMEs and entrepreneurs on impact investing as well as expanding their capacities was also highlighted.
A conversation with an impact investor and a social entrepreneur was a unique feature that attracted the attention of the participants. Tristan Ace moderated the discussion between Mario de Alwis, Founder & Managing Director of MA’s Tropical Food Processing (Pvt) Ltd and Shashvat Rai, Senior Investment Manager, Aavishkaar Venture Management Services, India. Aavishkaar was convinced to invest in Ma’s seeing the financial maturity and the socially passionate nature of the industry. Avishkaar adopts venture capital methodology to serve the low-income market segment by creating scalable enterprises.
A suggestion that emerged from the session on Innovations in alternative finance – Sharing lessons was that Social entrepreneurship is both a result of necessity (various social issues faced by entrepreneurs) as well as a dire need to formalize business environment in Sri Lanka. Thus the process of formalizing businesses will in turn open up many businesses for institutional capacity building efforts.
The participants of the workshop came up with a set of recommendation on the themes of government, role of business and support services, role of social investors, role of donors, INGOs, philanthropists, and the private sector, strategic communications, research and building a coalition with broader social enterprise community. A white paper capturing these recommendations with highlights of the conference will be shared with relevant government institutions for further follow up by Lanka Social Ventures and partners of the conference British Council, National Enterprise Development Authority, USAID BIZ Plus, Lanka Impact Investing Network and Social Enterprise Lanka. On concluding remarks the CEO of Lanka Social Ventures Dr. Lalith Welamedage urged the participants to take the emerging requirements from the conference further and assured of meeting the participants in a future event to continue the motion set in by the conference.