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As the world’s leading cultural relations organisation, the British Council creates international opportunities for the people of the UK and other countries and builds trust between them. Our work in over 110 countries encourages young people, citizens and institutions to contribute to a more inclusive, open and prosperous world.
Social enterprises address social and environmental problems through innovative solutions that improve people’s lives in our communities and societies. They combine the entrepreneurial approaches and trading methods of the private sector with the social mission and public values of the voluntary and public sector.
Our Global Social Enterprise programme draws on the UK experience in social enterprise to promote its growth around the world.
We build capacity in the sector, forge international networks, and support policy leaders to create ecosystems in which social enterprise and social investment can thrive.
Our work supports positive social change, inclusive growth and sustainable development while building trust and creating opportunities between the UK and other countries.
Our offer
Currently running in 24 countries on four continents, the programme:
- Provides aspiring and existing social enterprises with skills training, consultancy, mentoring and access to funding
- Offers capacity and structural support to frontline organisations servicing vulnerable, poor and marginalised groups
- Supports education institutions to embed social enterprise, exchange best practice, and deliver joint research on social enterprise
- Facilitates the use of social enterprise approaches in international development programmes
- Disseminates best UK and global practice to support policy leaders to create enabling eco-systems for social enterprise and investment
- Commissions research and organises high profile events that foster social enterprise
- Builds international networks linking social entrepreneurs, intermediary organisations and social investors
Programme reach
To date, our programme has:
- provided more than 5,000 social entrepreneurs with advanced training as well as access to UK expertise, regional peer networks and partner-supported funding and investment opportunities
- formed partnerships with over 95 organisations including philanthropic foundations, corporations, intermediary organisations, government bodies, universities, think tanks and media groups
- achieved 1.5bn media mentions
- reached a digital audience of 13.8m
- raised awareness of social enterprise and social innovation through university road-shows and public exhibitions reaching audiences exceeding 100,000
Tangible impact
Our training helps social entrepreneurs to create real impact:
- 90% Successfully establish a social enterprise
- 75% Increase the number of beneficiaries they support
- 73% Increase the quality of services and products
- 54% Provide more employment opportunities
In addition:
29% Of policymakers involved in our programme have made changes to policies and/or instruments to support social enterprises
Programme outcomes
In India we support gender equality and economic empowerment by cascading training to 1,200 women social entrepreneurs.
- In Indonesia, we have provided training to 205 community enterprises and offered partner funding to the most promising.
- Working with Social Enterprise UK, we investigated British social enterprises that trade overseas and recommended policies to further support export and franchising abroad.
- In China, our Social Investment Platform connects established social entrepreneurs with social investors, providing them with access to capital (£2.2m in 2 years), networks and incubation to scale up and thrive.
- With South Korea’s international development agency we are introducing social entrepreneurship to its professionals to ensure resource efficiency and sustainability.
- In Canada we are promoting social impact investment and the Buy Social Canada launch
- We are partnering with the World Bank on awareness raising and seed funding to diversify and grow the movement in Morocco.
- In Greece we seek to reduce youth unemployment through ‘Act Social-Think Business’ a social enterprise programme with Ashoka and EU partners.
- We drew together views from across Europe to create a “Vision for social enterprise in Europe 2020” and debated it with leading politicians at a European Commission event.
Social Enterprise in the UK
The UK is widely regarded as a global leader in the social enterprise space. It is home to some 68,000 social enterprises that provide over one million jobs and in 2011 contributed £24 billion to the economy.
The UK is also a leader in developing new social investment vehicles for social enterprise. These include the world’s first social investment bank, Big Society Capital, and social impact bonds, where investors pay for social interventions that could make substantial savings for the public sector and get paid a dividend if successful.
In a keynote speech at the G8 Social Impact Investment Forum, Prime Minster David Cameron said, “Social investment can be a great force for social change on the planet.”
We cooperate with a number of UK organisations to disseminate UK best practice and support the global social enterprise movement. We have a strategic partnership with Social Enterprise UK. Social Enterprise UK is the national body for social enterprise and it publishes an exemplary annual survey of the sector. The latest version is called “The People’s Business: State of Social Survey 2013.”
Future plans
As global interest in social enterprise continues to spread, we will seek opportunities to introduce the programme in other countries in Europe, South Asia, Africa and the Americas.
In addition to expanding the programme’s geographical reach we will also focus on enhancing our ability to share resources and expertise across a global digital platform. Early work on this includes our partnership with the Guardian to create the international social enterprise network.
Find out more
You can read more about our work by signing up for our newsletter, visiting our Social Enterprise website and can following us on Twitter
If you are interested in partnering with us, please send us an email.
Content on this page is paid for and provided by The British Council sponsor of the International Social Enterprise hub.
