A Policy Framework for Social Entrepreneurship In Lebanon
A Policy Framework for Social Entrepreneurship In Lebanon
Across the world societies are ubiquitously struggling to deal with increasing feelings of social exclusion, unemployment and the provision of good quality social services that address the basic needs of their communities In the MENA region and Lebanon in particular, this trend is most acutely observed. Unemployment rates have hit new highs. Meanwhile, an escalating financial crisis along with low quality and expensive privatized social services in areas such as education, health care, water, energy, transportation, shelter and the environment have further alienated sections of society leaving them neglected and suspicious of public authorities.
The Arab Spring of 2010 had triggered amongst many citizens of South Mediterranean countries a sense of hope for restored justice, equality and freedom in their societies at the social, economic and political levels. Consequently, creating job opportunities and economic growth as well as solving social issues was moved to the top of the priority list at both national and regional levels.
Since then, policies and programs adopted by governments and some international actors have failed to create economic momentum, and an alternative approach to social stability and economic development is growing increasingly necessary. As governments struggle to tackle these challenges through policy actions, social entrepreneurship presents itself as a strategic component of any new policy initiatives or reforms.
Social Entrepreneurship advocates the development of sustainable innovative solutions that address local socio-economic challenges. With its values of cohesion, inclusion, participation, and solidarity, social entrepreneurship can foster local development, stability and civic engagement. As citizens take agency in their communities, innovating solutions for local problems, and translating their ideas into sustainable social-entrepreneurial models, they kick start change from the local level outward. If harnessed correctly this ripple of change can drive the adoption and implementation of informed, viable and efficient policy agendas that address social justice issues at a national level.
The Social Entrepreneurship sector in the MENA region is still lacking any official and designated legal recognition. Through the EU report on the Support to Social Business Ecosystems in the Southern Mediterranean Countries issued in 2016, Beyond Group’s Gilbert Doumit, Omar AbdelSamad, and Natalia Menhall in partnership with AECOM outline some of the challenges that might be hindering the development of legal frameworks to accommodate social enterprises include:
The lack of capacity to develop, implement and monitor an SE policy and strategy.
The lack of coordination between ministries and public agencies concerned with an SE policy.
The use of informal policy making processes in place of formal channels of executive and legislative branches of government.
The lack of research, access to information and data management systems necessary to formulate evidence based policies.
The lack of political will to engage civil society in policy making processes so as to avoid transforming it into a threat to the actual regime.
The lack of capacity and sometimes disengagement of civil society in policy dialogue and formulation.
Despite the absence of policy frameworks to organize and encourage its expansion, the Social Entrepreneurship sector is already growing and posing as a promising opportunity for economic development as well as social justice, especially in regions outside the city centers.
For the last decade, Social entrepreneurship has been a prominent component of Beyond Group’s agenda for impact. One of the Policy & Public Management Practice’s main protagonists of this sector the past two years has been Badael (Building Alternative Development Assets and Entrepreneurial Learning), a regional flagship project in Lebanon designed in partnership with Oxfam, Utopia, and Association Najdeh, and funded by the EU Regional Trust Fund, MADAD.
The project aims at supporting entrepreneurial initiatives with social impact as a means to address socio-economic challenges in the country with particular attention to five geographically remote and underserved areas of Lebanon; Joub Jounine, Saadnael, Badawi Camp, Nahr El Bared Camp, Koura, El Mina, and Tripoli.
It is the largest project of its kind to ever be implemented in the region, with over 9000 individuals trained on social entrepreneurship skills. The program includes 6 milestone phases. Together, these 6 phases comprise a holistic induction of social entrepreneurship values into existing as well as upcoming businesses across the country:
Developing A Needs Assessment outlining priority issues, available resources, opportunities, as well as key stakeholders across the different regions as identified by the local community members themselves.
Training community members to become trainers on social entrepreneurship and support other citizens in developing collaborative social enterprises.
Organizing Bootcamps to prepare participating applicants for the Badael national social entrepreneurship competition.
Leading A National Social Entrepreneurship Competition gathering about 1000 applicants of which 47 winners were selected to be funded and supported through an incubation program.
Developing A Policy Paper and Legal Framework to define and organize the social entrepreneurship sector in Lebanon.
Designing An Advocacy Campaign to help inform the public of the new Policy and Legal Framework and encourage existing and upcoming businesses to adopt the social entrepreneurship model and qualify for the various incentives.The campaign is due to be launched in the first quarter of 2020.
Since 2010, and in addition to multiple capacity building programs to equip citizens with the knowledge and skills required to launch their own social enterprises, Beyond Group has been heavily invested in bringing together over 70 stakeholders in service of organizing and supporting a new and budding Social Entrepreneurship sector In Lebanon. By virtue of its Policy Paper component, Badael became the accelerator of these efforts, extrapolating them to a nation-wide level and driving them straight to policy makers.
Through an intensive consultation process with social enterprises and ecosystem actors in Lebanon, a set of parameters spanning three dimensions were articulated to help define a social enterprise within the Lebanese context. The first dimension is the social outcome of the social enterprise which looks at the social impact and innovation of the social enterprise within the social, economic, environmental and cultural contexts of the country. The governance structure of the enterprise is the second dimension and is concerned with the inclusiveness, transparency and participation mechanisms instated by the enterprise. The third dimension is the sustainability of the social enterprise and is determined by the business model of a social enterprise to ensure its financial continuity and evaluate its use of natural and environmental resources.
In the absence of an official legal framework for social enterprises in Lebanon, a detailed legal review was conducted to determine the best legal framework model that could be adopted for social enterprises in the country. The analysis lead to the formulation of a qualification model paralleled with a framework of incentives that would not only encourage nascent and aspiring social enterprises, but also allow already existing enterprises operating in Lebanon under different legal models to transform their business models at their own pace in order to qualify for the incentives and contribute to creating social impact without burdening them with a new, exclusive, and bureaucratic process to re-register under a different model.
The three parameters defining social enterprises in Lebanon were each broken down into three levels of qualification for each of which a set of incentives was assigned. The result is a three-layered matrix that comprises the proposed legal framework for social entrepreneurship in Lebanon. The matrix encourages social enterprises of any level of qualification to aim for higher levels of incentives through creating greater social and environmental impact.
With the support and backing of all involved governmental, civil society and private sector actors, the policy framework was presented before the Lebanese Presidency of the Council of Ministers in 2019 and adopted pending the development of a governance model that will support its implementation. Through Badael, Beyond Group is working to design and implement an advocacy campaign that will launch the framework at a national level and onboard nascent, existing, and aspiring social enterprises to qualify for the allocated incentives and contribute to the aspired social impact through their various enterprises.