If the United Nations was fully funded, why would we need the Arc and Social Enterprise?

Imagine the United Nations was fully funded, this wouldn’t guarantee greater funds directed to development programmes. In the period of 2012-2013, a total of 9.1% of the UN’s budget was allocated to the ‘development account’ and ‘international cooperation for development’. Many departments within the UN could argue they are underfunded, so an increase in funds to the UN could even result in the allocation of less of the budget to development projects in real terms.

This is why Social Enterprise and projects like The Arc Initiative are important. They provide assistance to smaller start-ups and individuals who are in countries or areas where they wouldn’t otherwise be able to benefit from business advice. The Arc organises workshops and programmes for entrepreneurs, allowing people to gain an insight into how their business could develop and develop experience to achieve this. Through increased publicity of communities and countries in need of assistance, as a result of such projects, future generations will understand why we need to allocate resources to helping to solve these issues. This is important because the leaders of tomorrow will make their own decisions about where to direct finance, meaning that if they have grown up hearing of the successes social enterprise brings, they will be more likely to fund it in the future.

Programmes need to be sustainable. There has been a shift away from people believing their work stops when they donate. The key in improving the welfare of individuals in less well-off communities is teaching them how to use funds efficiently. After all ‘Give a man a fish; he eats for a day. Teach a man to fish; and he eats for a lifetime’. Through UN funding alone, this could not be achieved. Instead we need the smaller projects together to make the largest difference.

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