Yunus Social Business - Global Initiatives
Yunus Social Business (YSB) is a social business venture capital fund and consulting company that initiates and manages development programs for social businesses worldwide. As part of the international implementation arm for the concept of social business formulated by Nobel Prize winner Muhammad Yunus , YSB supports and finances the development of social business through local, national incubator funds. The YSB currently operates locally in Albania, Brazil, Haiti, Togo and Tunisia and has its headquarters in Frankfurt am Main / Germany with a team of 22 people.
history
The YSB was co-founded in 2011 by Nobel Laureate and Professor Muhammad Yunus as a spin-off of the Grameen Creative Lab to establish and support social businesses outside of Bangladesh. Some of YSB's activities, such as The program in Haiti, for example, was initiated under the name Grameen Creative Lab. YSB's approach is to use methodological approaches and best practices from management consulting, the venture capital industry and international development aid and to adapt them for work with social businesses.
Social Business Incubator Fund
The methodology of the YSB Incubator Fund combines the practice of the classic venture capital industry with knowledge and experience from the development sector. The methodology offers local social entrepreneurs and their implementation teams support in the incubation and financing of their ventures. Typical target projects are owner-managed companies; NGOs looking to turn profitable activities into social business; or large companies that are looking for more sustainable approaches to implementing their corporate social responsibility activities.
Country initiatives
YSB's incubator fund is currently active in both Haiti and Albania. The YSB is currently establishing similar structures in Brazil, Togo and Tunisia.
YSB Haiti
With representation in Port-au-Prince, YSB Haiti is currently incubating social businesses in the three strategic areas of a) education and vocational training, b) agriculture and the environment, and c) nutrition.
The YSB invested in a vocational training center in Port-au-Prince that is currently training 950 enrolled students with courses in entrepreneurship and finance.
The YSB has also invested in three poultry farms and a bakery that aim to ensure access to food and everyday necessities in a country that is heavily reliant on imports of basic foodstuffs and raw materials. The profits from these social businesses are used to subsidize seven local schools that educate 900 children in remote rural areas.
YSB also invested in a jatropha plantation that provides income for 200 farmers. Planting jatropha prevents soil erosion while the jatropha plant is made into biofuel and animal feed.
YSB Albania
YSB Albania started its social business activities in Albania in April 2012. With a local team in Tirana, the YSB Albania Incubator identified and developed the first social businesses in the country. The first investments in social businesses were approved in the 1st quarter of 2013. YSB Albania also runs a national social business plan competition and joint activities with several development agencies, local administrations and universities to encourage the establishment of social businesses.
The Albanian government supports the initiative significantly through the newly founded public agency for the support of social business (Nxitja e Biznesit Social, NBS).
YSB Africa
The YSB started in Africa in December 2012 in cooperation with the African Development Bank Department of Human Development (OSHD) and is financed by a Policy and Human Resource Development Grant of Japan (PHRDG) the 'Holistic Social Business Movement'. As part of this initiative, YSB and AfDB will create awareness for social business through national conferences in Tunisia, Togo and Uganda and subsequently establish national social business incubator funds in the second half of 2013. The 'National Conference on Social Business' took place in Tunisia in March 2013 at the IHEC in Carthage, Tunisia.
See also
- Grameen Bank
- Social entrepreneurship
- Social investment
- Social investor
- Social risk capital
- Venture Philanthropy
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Yunus, Muhammad (2009). Creating a World Without Poverty: Social Business and the Future of Capitalism. PublicAffairs. pp. 320. ISBN 978-1-58648-667-9 .
- ↑ http://www.foxnews.com/world/2012/10/13/nobel-peace-laureate-muhammad-yunus-announces-financing-for-ocial-businesses-in/
- ↑ http://www.whatchado.net/videos/saskiathais_bruysten
- ^ Muhammad (2011). Building Social Business: The New Kind of Capitalism that Serves Humanity's Most Pressing Needs. PublicAffairs. pp. 256. ISBN 978-1-58648-956-4
- ↑ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/11/muhammas-yunus-social-business_n_924877.html
- ↑ http://www.businessweek.com/ap/2012-10-13/muhammad-yunus-announces-financing-in-haiti
- ↑ Archive link ( Memento of the original from January 26, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ http://top-channel.tv/video.php?id=22041 ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Archive link ( Memento of the original from July 29, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ http://www.afdb.org/en/news-and-events/article/the-afdb-and-nobel-laureate-muhammad-yunus-launch-social-business-in-africa-11614/
