Overview

At the virtual dialogue event held on 20, 21 and 23 September 2021, over 45 participants from 10 countries took a look at social entrepreneurship from a range of municipal perspectives. They found that this rather new target group for local business development has a great deal of potential for municipalities. Innovative examples from Kiel, the municipality hosting the virtual event, as well as from the UK and Uganda, showcased the wide range of funding opportunities and the great benefits that can arise when municipalities and social entrepreneurs work together.

So far, many municipalities have given barely any thought to social entrepreneurship. The dialogue event provided them with a good first impression. The international dialogue and examples from around the world also inspired many participants to take concrete action to promote social entrepreneurship.

Keynotes

Professor Matthias Raith from the University of Magdeburg explained that social start-ups usually have a social mission on a topic such as social participation, climate change or environmental protection, and establish a company to fulfil this mission.

Sascha Haselmayer, Managing Director of Citymart and Fellow at New America and Ashoka, shared the experiences of many cities around the world that are breaking new ground by promoting social entrepreneurship through their public procurement.

Anneke Schaart from the University of Kiel showed that the yoowedoo project based there serves as a hub for learning, advice and exchange for sustainable, community-oriented and socially entrepreneurial projects, associations and start-ups. It also provides start-up capital to selected companies.

Jonas Stolzke, founder and managing director of my Boo, presented his company: my Boo produces bicycle frames in Ghana made from bamboo, and uses them to build complete bicycles in Kiel. my Boo is using its profits to finance a school in Ghana.

Results

Many municipalities are still in the early stages of promoting social entrepreneurship. It is therefore first of all important for them to develop a shared understanding of what exactly social entrepreneurship encompasses. Among other things, they noted that social entrepreneurship is characterised by the fact that it pursues social ends and is economically profitable at the same time.

The participating municipalities wish to provide more support for social entrepreneurship – often small start-ups – in the form of incubators, co-working spaces and networking opportunities, among other things. They see social enterprises as a great asset for their municipalities, because social entrepreneurs – as they are known internationally – offer solutions to social problems in cities and communities.

The participants defined concrete further steps in three areas: The City of Kiel intends to launch a national network in Germany and explore the possibilities of crowdfunding for its activities to promote social entrepreneurship in the city. The partner cities of Karlsruhe, Strasbourg and Kampala are planning an international platform for joint learning and international dialogue.