Can companies support social entrepreneurship?
On 13 June 2002, the Conference on Supporting Social Enterprises was held in Skopje to promote social entrepreneurship to the private sector.
Deputy Minister of Labor and Social Policy Enver Huseyin opened the Conference with a sincere commitment to the development of the social economy and to the support needed for the development of social entrepreneurship. According to Huseyin, investing in the development of the eco-system for social enterprises implies creating a culture for social investment, piloting innovative financial instruments, but also other resources and opportunities for financial support of social enterprises.
“The National Strategy for Social Enterprises is the backbone of the eco-system that we are building as a Ministry of Labor and Social Policy in cooperation with all interested parties, including the donor community, civil society, the private sector and institutions. Of course, the implementation of this strategy is also complemented by a national coordinating mechanism for monitoring the implementation. This autumn we will prepare the first report on the implementation of the Strategy and the Action Plan,” Deputy Minister Huseyin said.
In addition to the Deputy Minister of Labor and Social Policy, the Ambassador of the Republic of Poland to Skopje, Mr. Wojciech Ticzyński also addressed the audience at the conference.
Ways how companies can support social enterprises, i.e. financial tools were presented by Barbara Sadowska, team leader and the expert Teresa Zagrodska, from the project “Support of social enterprises”.
Representatives from the social enterprises “Izbor”, “Ednakvost”, “Mama Organa” and “In Vivo” with their speeches brought the concept closer to the companies, offering ways for them to become involved, either as investors or by involving social enterprises in their procurement chain.
Dusan Tomsic from MTSP, Paul Bushots-Manus from Belgium, Viktor Mirchevski from Connect, Besir Dergnani, representative of Albiz Foundation and Philip Ivanovski from Pakomak took part in the panel discussion.
Solidarity companies, private companies, banks and local authorities discussed how companies can show greater solidarity and how social enterprises can become more entrepreneurial.
In the beautiful atmosphere full of honesty and relevant topics, serious messages were heard for setting the development of social entrepreneurship as a priority, because it is the duty of the state to develop social economy through which it will integrate vulnerable categories and make them active contributors, not only recipients of social assistance.
