It’s easy to give people/countries large sums of money and say “go solve your problems”, but it’s another thing to show the person/country what to do with the money. And this is why even if the UN were fully funded social enterprise would still be needed. Taking the Arc initiative as an example, in the reading about Arielle Uwonkunda and starting up the Arc in Rwanda, she says that “after being given money, [enterprises] don’t have sufficient knowledge to utilize it efficiently.” That statement essentially explains why the world will always need people that are motivated not only by profits, but also by the triple bottom line. Money doesn’t tell you how to create a business, or how to be sustainable, while people that care (social enterprises) do. Furthermore, through creating a stream of knowledge, resources can be used more efficiently, and the individuals helped through social enterprise can go on to “pay it forward” to others.
As the age old adage goes, it’s far better to teach a man how to fish, then to give the man a fish. Initiatives such as the Arc teach people the skills they need to succeed while also going above and beyond just simply sending funds. Lastly, I believe that money is a non-renewable resource, while knowledge and ideas last forever. Social enterprise fosters this belief and illustrates why knowledge, not cash, is the most important source of “capital” in the world.
Social Enterprise Tree
Picture Reference: http://umip.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Social-Enterprise-Tree.jpg
