Social entrepreneurship is fast becoming a popular way of addressing society’s problems that the government and big business are typically expected to solve, such as poverty and shortages in basic needs like water. Ironically, the more popular it has become, the “less certain about what exactly a social entrepreneur is and does,” assert Martin & Osberg in the 2007 Stanford Social Innovation Review. Thus, although the term was first used in the early 1960s, today there is still debate as to its real definition.
This deficiency notwithstanding, social entrepreneurship has gained ground in academe. One of the early writings on this topic in the Philippines is “Social Entrepreneurship and Enterprise Development” by Eduardo Morato, formerly of the Asian Institute of Management, and leading light in entrepreneurialism in the country. More recently, graduating students at the John Gokongwei School of Management (JG-SOM) in the Ateneo de Manila have been given the option to do social entrepreneurship instead of the normal businesses that they are required to put up in their strategy classes. “[B]usiness projects conceived and formulated by student teams [are] designed for application in the context of a GK [Gawad Kalinga] village by way of resources, logistics and financing [labor and materials], if not the market itself,” Art Valencia writes in the Loyola Schools Bulletin. Ateneo has also established a Center for Social Entrepreneurship, thanks in large part to the support of outgoing Ateneo president Fr. Ben Nebres, SJ, one of whose vision has been for Ateneo professionals to help narrow the poverty gap. The center supports, among other things, Gawad Kalinga’s CSI program.
CSI stands for Center for Social Innovation. And Tuesday nights at the JG-SOM are CSI nights, where young students and professionals, start-up entrepreneurs and established business owners discuss business—with a social twist, Valencia adds. And what’s the twist? “[T]o hatch new ideas that will provide concrete on-the-ground solutions to GK’s long-term goals of alleviating poverty and nation building.”
GK’s CSI initiative is essentially a “village university,” where Filipino business and nonbusiness graduates are given the opportunity to immerse themselves in communities at the bottom-of-the-pyramid (a term closely identified with C.K. Prahalad), and mold themselves into, not just good businessmen, but excellent social entrepreneurs thus, enabling them to apply the lessons they learned inside the classroom. They act as “middle
brothers” who speak both the language of the “big brothers” (those who have made it in their respective industries), and the “younger brothers” (those who live in GK communities and who will provide the human resource that businesses need to grow).
The premise of GK-CSI is that if business graduates of top schools experience difficulties starting up their businesses, and are not assured of immediate success despite years of schooling and preparation, then the less should be expected of the marginalized sectors of society that try entrepreneurship. To solve the dilemma, GK founder Tony Meloto proposes the building of “an army of wealth creators” by supporting the entrepreneurial ventures of the young in whatever aspect—capital, product development, marketing—so long as they partner with the appropriate GK community, which will either provide labor, or sweat equity. Frank Chiu, GK-Ateneo program officer for social enterprise development, said GK-CSI marks GK’S veering away from short-lived and unsustainable livelihood programs in the communities.
The first GK-CSI site was established in the Enchanted Farm in Angat, Bulacan, more than a year ago, and occupies 14 hectares. There are already around eight start-ups that are nurtured by the program. One of these is Jacinto & Lirio (J&L), which creates stylish bags from water hyacinth or water lily. J&L, which is run by young Noreen Bautista, contributes to society by providing livelihood to people living in areas where water hyacinths proliferate, and helps the environment by effectively clearing out the plants without wasting their potential.
Also serving as face of GK-CSI are young volunteers who have decided to dedicate their time to the cause. Matt Lapid, for instance, is a Fil-Am student of the University of California Irvine, who intended to visit and do only summer work in GK Enchanted Farm, but has decided to stay on indefinitely as volunteer against his parents’ wishes. Billy Santos, left his teaching post at the Physics Department of the Ateneo to put up RattanMan. Its mission? To promote the Filipino artisan’s supremacy in the art of weaving indigenous materials like rattan and bamboo.
Will GK’s experimental venture work? Only time can tell, to use a cliché. As early as now, there are critics who doubt Enchanted Farm’s chance at success, specifically because of its inaccessibility, aggravated by the rough road leading to the site. But Meloto is unfazed. “Build and they will come” is one of his hopeful mantras. And one could only hope that he is right again. Especially for the sake of the majority poor of this country. And for this country’s sake. For GK is not into building of houses and communities only. It is into the building of a nation, so that the Filipino may also rebuild his dignity.
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J. Sedfrey S. Santiago, Aldo Zelig U. Tong, and Marion Lara L. Tan are faculty of the John Gokongwei–School of Management, Ateneo de Manila University. They’re currently doing research on BayaniJuan sa SouthVille 7 and GK’s Enchanted Farm under the Loyola Schools grant.
