Discussion: The Philippines environment around social innovation and entrepreneurship

Interview with Toa Giroletti

Currently we’re working on a project that includes five South Asian countries and I’m leading the Philippines Team. The project is evaluating whether higher education institutions can boost social innovation/social enterprises. To achieve this we’re using different approaches, for example, we are mapping social innovation and social enterprises teaching materials, courses, and publications, to see how much they’ve spread, how they developed and the types of funding they have.

One of the most interesting things I have found whilst working within the Philippines team is the lack of a solid legal definition of what a social enterprise is and the consequences on its development. So far, only the PRESENT bill, which proposes a workable definition, has been pushed in Parliament. This lack of definition ultimately leaves with the main actors the ability to interpret their roles as social entrepreneurs and innovators.

Although this situation is not unique to the Philippian case, and even academics still struggle to agree on one unique definition of social enterprise, I found particularly interesting to talk to the Philippian actors and see the different visions they have on social innovation and social enterprise. In fact, part of the project consisted in interviewing academics and social entrepreneurs, asking them about their involvement with social innovation and social enterprise.

During the interviews, academic and social innovators/entrepreneurs gave us quite different opinions, also critically discussing the processes and tools to measure social impact. Moreover, both academics and practitioners mentioned the need for a clear definition.

With all this in mind, moving forward isn’t that easy, but there are already several movements directly promoting not only an agreed a definition, but also governmental funding schemes and various supports for these social enterprises. For instance, some organisations are carrying out projects involving policy makers, through which they are trying to push for their vision about what should be done to consistently support social entrepreneurship, and about the types of funding needed to make it possible.