Social Enterprise World Forum 2023 – A Movement Putting People and Planet First

Every year, the global social enterprise community gathers to share new insights and connect with like-minded people working towards an impact economy. This year, Ākina sent two team members to participate in the 2023 Social Enterprise World Forum, held in Amsterdam, Netherlands.

Roschelle Marshall, Director Capability Building and Nick Douglas, Head of Programmes attended on behalf of Ākina, as well as one of our Trustees, Te Pūoho Katene representing Tapuwae Roa and Ngāti Toa.

“While it’s hard to summarise such an intensive period of inspiration, connection, and learning, it’s important to us that we share key insights that could make a difference to Aotearoa” says Nick Douglas. 

“In Amsterdam, we saw governments across the globe recognising impact enterprises as a driver for a wellbeing economy, with municipalities and cities building case studies to demonstrate and advocate for what can be achieved. Aotearoa’s Wellbeing Budget is used as a case example of how governments can enable change”.

Roschelle heard international examples of how both governments and corporates struggle to authentically engage with indigenous and community groups when setting out to design inclusive economic systems. “There were stories about projects that have either slowed or failed due to a lack of time spent building trust with the community before jumping into co-creation with them. Unless you have that foundation of trust and balance of power from the start, projects are very slow to progress”. 

Manawa Udy from Ngāhere Communities, Roschelle Marshall from Ākina and Helene Malandain, Chair of SEWF

Both Nick and Roschelle remarked on the abundant availability of capital in Europe, in comparison to Aotearoa, and that this capital is used across the lifespan of social enterprise development - not just for scaling up.

“Capability building and capital are like salt and pepper, good on their own, but great together. We heard about how global organisations such as Google.org are funding both capability building programmes and grants to enable social entrepreneurs to act on their new skills and knowledge” said Roschelle. 

Other key insights include the emergence of trust-based investment models that are more holistic, and take a portfolio approach for community solutions. Some models only take on impact enterprises that open source their solutions and other organisations offering loans which can be turned into grants if social enterprises fail.

“Investing in quality impact measurement is a growing focus for governments and corporates. I was impressed by the lengths that organisations were going to, to understand their true impact and how they were using this data to transform their business and operating models” said Nick. “The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are also well established and remain a guiding light for many organisations in a range of sectors”.

People and Planet First

While in Amsterdam, Social Enterprise World Forum launched the brand People and Planet First which is a call-to-action to galvanise this common vision of purpose-led enterprise globally, no matter what type of enterprise you are, including indigenous business. 

Helene Malandain, Chair of Social Enterprise World Forum and Ākina alumni, said “People and Planet First belong to everyone, and it is our hope that all of you will soon breathe life and meaning into it, amplify it and make it part of your story”.

Inspired by the level of integration and inspiration between the amazing social entrepreneurs, policy makers, investors, philanthropists, and corporations, SEWF made it clear that we can all learn and achieve great things when there is a shared vision for using business to create positive change.