Social enterprises and decreasing vulnerability Europe and CIS The issue in the framework of UNDP Bratislava Regional Centre’s priorities

Europe and CIS Outline What is BRC doing Approach to vulnerability Why economy is seen as appropriate for decreasing vulnerability? Next steps

Europe and CIS BRC architecture and territorial coverage Three thematic dimensions (“practices”) with set of sub- practices  Democratic governance  Environmental  Poverty HD, MDGs and poverty monitoring (with social inclusion increasingly gaining in significance) Civil society engagement for poverty alleviation MDG support Private business engagement, UN Secretary General Global Compact Initiative Poverty reduction and trade Cross-cutting areas  Gender  ICT  HIV/AIDS Country support team

Europe and CIS Why involved in the RBEC region? Major challenges Strong core-periphery disparities ‘Working poor’ phenomenon Unreformed social services Old industrialized regions (depressive urban areas) Single-factory towns poverty Rural poverty Increase in inequality Emergence of visible of “losers” of transition (“vulnerable groups”)

Europe and CIS Why involved in the region? Increase in inequality

Europe and CIS Approach to vulnerability – who are vulnerable? Group affiliation  Roma? IDPs? Women? Youth? Individual status dimension  Disabled  Pre-retirement age unemployed  Long-term unemployed  Level of education, qualification  Single parents Functional dimension  Isolation (inaccessible social and physical environment)  Access (lack of) to basic infrastructures

Europe and CIS Dealing with vulnerability – addressing… Poverty and the risk of falling into poverty (not just monetary) Lack of educational opportunities Inadequate personal (physical) security, Poor housing Poor access to health care Closely related to the concept of ‘human security’ (security beyond security of nation-states’ borders)

Europe and CIS Closer look at HD and HS perspective to vulnerability Vulnerability as a set of:  Socio-economic risks (household dimension)  Personal risks (individual dimension)  Environmental risks (territorial and spatial dimension) Vulnerability as capacity deficits to:  identify and avoid threats  Identify group-specific and factor-specific instruments to attenuate their consequences

Europe and CIS Social enterprises as an instrument to address vulnerability Entities sharing characteristics of business and NGO/CSO sector Main objective – achieving social goals and not profit (NGO ‘face’) Major instrument for reaching the objective – operation following business models Dual role of the ‘target group’:  Active participants  Major client Particularly suitable for excluded groups Different from:  Market providers of social services  Entities distributing social assistance

Europe and CIS Unlike targeted “group approach”, social enterprises can Target the assistance and increase both its effectiveness and efficiency Provide wide range of ‘positive externalities’ Actively involve the communities Decrease ‘free riders’ perception and thus improve social cohesion Decrease dependency Decrease overall costs of addressing vulnerability and social inclusion Be ‘group neutral’ and open to various vulnerable groups Falls into EC priority work on “social economy”

Europe and CIS Why social enterprises for vulnerable groups? The Roma… Social inclusion of Roma faces problems  despite the plethora of initiatives?  Because of the plethora of initiatives? Policies so far contributing to dependence ‘Capacity’ of the stakeholders rarely being developed Strong corporate interests involved in ‘Roma inclusion’ vulnerability-based approach necessary – targeting Roma because they are vulnerable and not because they are Roma Social enterprises can be helpful to decrease dependency and social distance

Europe and CIS The current project A regional initiative launched by BRC in 2006 to assess the feasibility and practice of Social Enterprises in NMS, the Western Balkans, and the CIS Set of national studies in a regional framework Common denominator – post-socialist specifics of the “third sector” Country specifics – address nationally- relevant challenges regarding vulnerability and social inclusion

Europe and CIS The regional component… Introduces regionally adequate definitions of social enterprises Estimates contributions of social enterprises to the process of social inclusion (both from a social and economic point of view) Suggests criteria for measurement (three economic and three social criteria).  Economic: An economic activity producing goods and/or selling services A degree of autonomy A trend towards paid work  Social: An explicit aim to benefit the community or a specific group of people Decision-making power not based on capital ownership Exclusion of profit-maximising organizations

Europe and CIS The future perspectives Within this particular project  Future support to legal frameworks (in Poland and Serbia)  Launch of publication in Barcelona  Project Development based on findings Broader framework  Constituting “social economy” as a programmatic area of BRC  Integrating the work on supporting social economy into overall vulnerability-targeted endeavors  Linking social enterprises to social inclusion monitoring (sets of indicators, monitoring frameworks)