Strathclyde Business School's Dubai centre hosted the latest in "The Strathclyde Dialogues" series in May. This session of the Dialogue was titled, "Practicing Social Entrepreneurship in the UAE: Lessons from Dubai".
The six-strong panel consisted of individuals with either direct experience in social entrepreneurship or involvement in its promotion. The event was ably moderated by a Strathclyde alumnus, Garth Mitchell, who is currently engaged with Dubai egovernment's Social Media efforts.
Rama Chakaki, co-founder & CEO of the Dubai-based Baraka Ventures that provides strategic communications and planning to regional government/enterprise corporations and incubates sustainable social ventures, suggested that there is a definite role for social entrepreneurship since corporations have their limitations to address social issues. According to her, the core aspect of social entrepreneurship is "care" and she suggested that the challenge is to develop a methodology for broadbasing social entrepreneurship on this basis.
Sabrin Rahman who manages sustainability at HSBC's middle east operations suggested that businesses should play a greater role in the development of social entrepreneurship and believed that the spirit of entrepreneurship can be inculcated even at primary school level. Interestingly she observed that there are too many leaders and no followers when it comes to social entrepreneurship.
Antoaneta Popova, an entrepreneur and founder of the iLearn CSR Academy, a first of its kind in the Middle East offering certified CSR, sustainability training and strategy consultancy, suggested that the spirit of entrepreneruship can be nurtured through mentoring and training of individuals with aptitude for it. She suggested that each region has its own unique social issues and the nature of social entrepreneurship appropriate for each region would be different. Hence it is important for social entreneurss to be sensitive to local issues.
For Hisham Wyne, a copywriter, columnist, blogger, social and radio commentator and a noted Master of Ceremonies in Dubai and the Middle East, social entrepreneurship should not be reduced to a buzz word and suggested specific instances of services that do not exist today that can cater to citizens' felt needs in Dubai and the UAE in general.
James Piecowye is the newly appointed inaugural chair of the Canadian University of Dubai's Mass Communication department. He suggested that there is much that is done already that is not well known publicly. According to him it is important that social entrepreneurs and those who provide support services to them create compelling communication through social entrepreneurship stories that are inspiring. He suggested that universities start incubators for social ventures.
Jeannette Vinke is a Senior Lecturer at the American University of Sharjah teaching Finance and Accounting as well as an advisory board member of the ICAEW. She suggested that there is greater need to further develop and hone measures for understanding, appreciating and evaluating the impact that social entrepreneurs make to society.
The meeting was attended by about 45 people which included a number of current and former students. The event was marked by some of the current and potential social entrepreneurs networking with the panellists and other members of the audience.