Scoping for Social Enterprise Programming; Iraq, Jordan, Palestine, and Yemen
SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP MAPPING
SCOPING FOR SOCIAL ENTERPRISE PROGRAMMING IN IRAQ, JORDAN, AND PALESTINE
Despite being a nascent concept in the region, social entrepreneurship (SE) is gradually emerging in countries like Jordan, Iraq, and Palestine. In these countries, the value of social impact is inherent and practices of social solidarity date back many years. People and communities have always explored approaches for a better livelihood and solutions to their most pressing challenges.
While social entrepreneurship is a relatively new concept, it is nonetheless an old practice that has emerged as a sustainable and effective means to address social and environmental issues. Social entrepreneurship is also a broad concept and does not have an official and specific definition that satisfies different practices ‘because it does not sit neatly in the box, it sits across the spectrum’.4
Against this backdrop, continuous efforts have been undertaken to empower SE ecosystems regionally to build enabling environments for SEs to launch, grow, and scale their operations and impact. For this purpose, the ‘Scoping for social enterprise programming in Iraq, Jordan, Palestine and Yemen’ project aims to build an understanding of social enterprise sectors in these targeted countries. It also serves to inform future programming related to the growth and development of this sector. This report looks into cross-cutting trends and patterns in the four targeted countries to understand the key features of the emerging SE ecosystems. The report explores three key aspects of social entrepreneurship in the region as follows:
How is SE perceived?
Local understanding of SE and contextual impact-driven business activities.
How does the legal system accommodate SE?
The extent in which the legal and regulatory frameworks are enabling for SE to start-up and grow.
What are the key features of the SE ecosystem?
The type of support provided to SE and the key obstacles facing the ecosystem, including funding mechanisms, programme features, capacity building and networking.