Ground Up: Social Entrepreneurship Ecosystem Study

Ground Up: Social entrepreneurship ecosystem boost for resilient – Seminar one (16 to 21 May 2022) 

Macedonia 16-21 May 2022, Belle and co representative: Musa Mailula

The goal of the Ground Up project’s first seminar was to share information from partner groups’ work in the field of social entrepreneurship. 

The results of the research undertaken by each of the 11 partner countries will aid in the identification of indicators to be included under each of the four pillars used to determine what makes a city resilient and supportive of social entrepreneurs. 

Each of the pillars will have a collection of indicators that will be combined into a single digit index to quantify the amount of social activity in a country.

In order to achieve the above mentioned goal, in depth team discussions were held with the combined group. The bigger group was also paired into smaller working groups made up of participants from different partner countries. The discussions were later followed by interactive group sessions where we attempted to develop the indicators. During the interactive sessions, we had an in-depth discussion around the availability of data and calculation methodology/formulae. The last activity of seminar one was the presentation of the indicators.

The following broad list of indicators was compiled with the contribution of the 11 partner countries: 

HUMAN CAPITAL 

• Demographics information (structure of population within local community, including the number of youth, age of population, level of education, gender etc) 
• Structure of vulnerable groups at local level 
• Detailed information on youth structure 
• Goals of CSOs/topics they cover
• Number and structure of participants of the programs of CSOs relevant for the sector. 

QUALITY OF LIFE 

• Human Development Index (HDI) – includes life expectancy, Gross National Income per Capita, Mean years of schooling and Expected years of schooling 
• Homelessness
• Poverty/inequality
• Gender inequality
• Quality of health systems – doctors per capita 
• People affected by natural disasters 
• Pollution (water, air, noise etc) 
• Access to digital technology (internet, PC, mobile phone etc) 
• Crime rate 
• Percentage of green areas around the country 
• Accessibility of education 
• Socio economic development 
  • Financial standard 
    • Average salary 
    • Rent
    • Taxes
    • Cost of living 
  • Economic stability 
    • Inflation
    • Unemployment
    • Economic growth 
  • Housing
    • Quality
    • Home ownership rate 
  • Infrastructure
    • Accessibility
    • Public transportation 
  • Political stability 
    • Regulatory of the flow of political exchange
  • Human rights and laws 
    • Discrimination
    • Gender equality 
    • Disabilities
  • Environment
    • Pollution
  • Basic human needs 
• Poverty
• Access to water 
• Average death rate 
• Access to health services 
• Quality of health care services
  • Crime rates 

FUNDING AND CAPITAL ACCESS

• Government loans – grants 
• Venture capitalists  – private equity 
• Bank loans 
• Family and friends 
• Crowd funding 
• Charity donation
• Duration of support 
• Eligibility
  • Sector
  • Age
  • Social impact area 
  • Geographical coverage 
  • Amount

SUPPORT SYSTEMS 

• Physical places providing information
• Education institutions providing information 
• Number of financial institutions as percentage of banks 
• Number of existing sources in public sector 
• Number of existing sources in private sector 

The objective of seminar II is to narrow down the list and find sources of quantitative data for the list to include in the index and will be held 3-8 July in Costa Rica. 

More About the Ground Up Project

The project “GROUND UP: SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURIAL ECOSYSTEM BOOST FOR RESILIENT CITIES” focuses on development of place-based methodologies enabling youth organizations and other actors to build ecosystems that boost social entrepreneurial activity. This is an 18-month project supported by the EU Erasmus + Programme and implemented by lead partner Youth Alliance Krusevo of Macedonia.

The methodology will enable youth organizations accomplish these objectives:

• to identify challenges and obstacles that inhibit supportive environments; 
• to strengthen social entrepreneurial ecosystems from the ground up, enabling cities to identify smarter paths of empowering young people; 
• to identify transferable good practices from initiatives, projects with high social and environmental impact; to understand the needs, motivations of stakeholders involved in developing social entrepreneurial ecosystems; 
• to create a unified evidence-based framework indicating elements critical to success locally.

The project is including 11 organizations representing North Macedonia, Costa Rica, South Africa, Romania, Bulgaria, Slovenia, Poland, Denmark, Ecuador, Serbia and Peru. 

The project will include series of capacity building and mobility activities designed with aim to reach following objectives: 

• to evaluate local contexts and support the creation of conducive social entrepreneurial environments using created methodology; 
• to gather and analyse practices implemented and transfer these practices in the field of youth;
• to develop competences of youth workers in new methodology thus increasing quality of activities targeting young people with fewer opportunities and developing their entrepreneurial competences 
• to encourage collaboration in the creation of local and international projects addressing challenges that prevent supportive social entrepreneurial ecosystems.