2018-2019 Exchange
Social Business Regional Forum 2019
The Yunus Social Business Centre@CUHK, which is a subsidiary of this Centre, organised the Social Business Regional Forum 2019: Inclusive Social Innovation and University Social Responsibility on the 5th to 7th of this month. Scholars and the youth of six units (either university or social innovation institution) from Hong Kong, the Mainland and Taiwan were invited to the forum comprising a two-day workshop and a symposium held on the last day.
The workshop took place at the Jockey Club Creative Arts Centre for the youth only. During the sharing session, delegates introduced their social innovation projects to illustrate how to utilise creativity, take advantage of social marketing, and develop business model. They also joined a field visit to Sham Shui Po to gain an understanding of hawker culture, living condition of the underprivileged and the homeless people. Through the surveys on some local social innovation projects, the delegates got the feel of the relation between social enterprise and the grassroots.
In the symposium, the young delegates shared their reflections of the two-day workshop along with feedbacks from scholars. The scholars also presented cases on their respective universities’ social responsibility. Despite differences in the approach of promoting inclusive social innovation and university social responsibility, it manifested a common goal – to transform the university into a knowledge hub of social innovation where passionate students can be incubated and an innovative ambience can be created on- and off-campus.
At the panel discussion within the symposium, the young delegates pinpointed a hurdle in promoting social innovation on campus i.e. the four-year study in the university is too short for students to witness the fruits of their social innovation projects. They suggested there should be more case sharing from alumni who had already been in the field to arouse students’ interest in social enterprise startup. To echo this expectation, the scholars showed willingness to act as companions to the young social entrepreneurs to provide them with more support and encouragement.
Delegation of Students and Alumni Visits Bangladesh to Study Social Business
Yunus Social Business Centre@CUHK, a subsidiary of this Centre, led a delegation of six students and alumni to Dhaka, Bangladesh on 17-23 June 2019. They visited two social businesses under the Grameen Foundation and a social innovative project run by the non-governmental organisation, Building Resources Across Communities (BRAC), to study their different modes of intervention in the society.
Grameen Foundation is founded by the Nobel Peace Laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus rendering holistic services to improve the quality of life of grassroots. The borrowers of its Grameen Bank received home visits of the delegation and allowed them to sit in on their assembly to learn about ways of promoting rural community development and empowering women through microcredit. The delegation also visited the Grameen Shakti, also under Grameen Foundation, to have an understanding of its solar energy system for off-grid rural households. Taking the same opportunity, the delegation gained knowledge of the New Entrepreneur Programme which aims to assist the second generation of borrowers to start their own business.
As for the non-governmental organisation BRAC, it introduced the Social Innovation Lab and Microfinance Programme to the delegation. The former incubates social innovation projects to tackle arising social challenges, while the latter aims at providing financial services that were inaccessible for the poor in mainstream financial institutions. BRAC also lined up the delegation with its social enterprise Aarong which is a prominent fashion retailer in Bangladesh established in 1978 endeavouring to create humane job opportunities for rural crafters and small producers. By opening the production hub, supplier’s factory and retail outlet, the social compliance measures of Aarong was displayed.
This Bangladesh trip not only broadened the horizon of participants, but also enabled them to be inspired by the local social innovators.
