NGOs join to promote social entrepreneurship

NGOs join to promote social entrepreneurship

More than 400 non-governmental organisations signed a declaration urging regional governments to support social enterprises that employ marginalised groups.

Balkan civil society representatives signed a joint declaration in Belgrade on developing social entrepreneurship in Southeast Europe and Turkey. [Biljana Lajmanovska/SETimes]

NGOs throughout the region are collaborating to promote social enterprises that employ people from marginalised groups such as the disabled, women, youth, orphans and ex-convicts.

Fourteen NGOs from Turkey, Serbia, Macedonia, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), Montenegro and Kosovo gathered in Belgrade to sign a declaration on developing social entrepreneurship.

More than 400 NGOs signed the declaration after it was posted on the internet in March.

While there is no accepted definition of social entrepreneurship, a central element includes implementing measures and commercial activities to create employment for the socially marginalised.

The Belgrade declaration urges regional governments to adopt clear and feasible action guidelines to develop the social economy.

The declaration is the first regional effort in support of social entrepreneurship, said Juliana Hoxha, director of Partners-Albania, an NGO based in Tirana.

"[It] is important because it brings civil society actors together across borders," Hoxha told SETimes.

Hoxha said external actors such as the EU usually promote regional co-operation, but this time local actors took the initiative.

"That gives this effort legitimacy," she said.

Social entrepreneurship is increasingly becoming popular in Turkey and establishing networks with...