Social enterprises need policy support to flourish: analysts
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Bangladesh needs to promote innovative finance models for social enterprises to unlock investment from the private sector, said Durreen Shahnaz, managing director of Shujog, a social enterprise.
“We need private investment to develop social enterprises in the country,” she said yesterday.
Shahnaz spoke at a programme on “Social enterprise: policy and practice”, organised by the British Council Bangladesh and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, at Bangabandhu International Conference Centre in Dhaka.
The country needs policy support along with a friendly environment to help social enterprises grow, she said.
“We live in a very unfair and unjust world, where wealth and money are owned by few people and the rest suffer in poverty,” said Rokia Afzal Rahman, president of Bangladesh Federation of Women Entrepreneurs.
Bangladesh has many rich people and they are becoming richer day by day, but the country has many extreme poor people also, she said.
It makes sense to talk about social enterprises as commercial enterprises make rich people richer, but social enterprises can help the poor to win over poverty, Rahman said. “We have very good example of social enterprises in Bangladesh.”
For instance, Aarong, a fashion retailer, empowers women in rural areas under social enterprises. “They collect designs from as well as employ the women as artisans. The profit from their work is reinvested into education and health for rural women.”
Social enterprises are key to bring the country out of poverty, she said. “We need policy support from the government to move forward.”
“We need a model for social business enterprises that can change the world and bring welfare for the society through minimising the gap between the rich and poor,” said Muhammad A (Rumee) Ali, director of BRAC Bank.
Bangladesh needs a change in strategy to develop social enterprises, he said.
The government currently allows 30 percent tax benefit for social investors, but the country needs to develop more supportive policies to help the sector flourish, said Dan Gregory, head of policy at Social Enterprise UK, the body for social enterprises at the UK.
Social enterprises, which help create jobs and solve social problems, are important for Bangladesh to empower its women, Mark Clayton, deputy British high commissioner, said at the event.
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