Friday, August 12, 2016

Social Innovation

In the news article “Social Innovation Park launches book; reveals plans for a lifestyle area” by Alexis Ong on The Straits Times, the article explained about the Social Innovation Park (SIP) which is a non-profit organisation which aims to help develop and nurture social entrepreneurs and SIP's plan to open a farm which was mentioned during the launch of a book: Top 50 Social Innovations Changing Our World. The book elaborated on what social innovation is which refers to an idea or approach that will help create a positive impact for society where examples of social innovation includes the concept of void decks and the Yellow Ribbon Project. Social Innovations are hence an interesting idea that helps social entrepreneurs create a bigger impact on the local community.
Social innovation as defined by Lim & Yeap (2009) refers to innovative practices that are done to help meet a social need. Social innovation practices are usually done by organisations whose primary purpose is to meet a certain social need instead of having its main focus on profit-making. Social innovations are also mostly present in social enterprises which have a double bottom line of addressing its social issue as well as in making profits. Social innovations are often open and collaborative where targeted beneficiaries and the community are able to give their perspective on the problems they face which might not been seen from the perspectives of the social entrepreneurs. Hence, social innovations are made with the beneficiaries and by the beneficiaries which would help to increases the positive impact that the social innovation will bring about (Davies & Simon, 2013). Social innovations also helps to develop a more inclusive society as the disadvantaged groups in Singapore are able to share their problems through social innovations. Social innovation also promotes collaboration practices with other sectors as the combined efforts will help to bring about a more impactful and positive change for the community (Tucker, 2014).
In Singapore, there are initiatives and organisations that helps to promote social innovation. One of the organisations would be the Social Innovation Park (SIP) which is a non-profit organisations that helps to develop social entrepreneurs and innovators to bring about positive change to lives and the community through social innovation. SIP also aims to develop a self-reliant model for developing social entrepreneurs to adopt to aid these social entrepreneurs to bring about a positive impact to the society. SIP has conducted programmes such as The Global Social Innovators Forum which was launched to serve as a platform for social entrepreneurs from the different sectors to share their innovations and to explore how these innovations can help to create a positive impact for the community. SIP also aims to build a network of people to support the collaborative innovations which would help to build a more sustainable and inclusive society (Social Innovation Park, n.d.). Another initiatives to promote social innovation is the ‘Social InnovatorsHack!’. In the hackathon, the participants are exposed to the challenges present in the social sector where they had to find new and innovative solutions through collaborations with other stakeholders to help bring about a positive impact (Social Innovators Hack!, n.d.). The Lien Centre for Social Innovation also helps to promote social innovation in Singapore. The centre aims to start innovative responses to address social needs by building and developing social sector organisations so that they can become more impactful to society through social innovations (Lien Centre for Social Innovation, n.d.).
Some examples of social innovation include the World Toilet Organisation (WTO). WTO aims to empower individuals through education and the building of local marketplace opportunities to help promote the need for safe and clean sanitation facilities present in the communities in the world. WTO shows an example of social innovation as WTO uses a different approach in bringing sanitation facilities to the communities that lack them by providing an international platform where toilet associations, governments and other important stakeholders are able to come together to bring about a collaborative support to bring sanitation facilities to the communities without these facilities (Jacobs, 2013; World Toilet, n.d.). Another example of a social innovation are void decks. Void decks are the spaces found under the Housing and Development Board (HDB) flats as a common space for people of all ages, regardless of race or religion to use to build a more inclusive society. For example, bird corners can be found at some void decks where the elderly residents can come and hang the bird cages up there to listen to the birds chirping while catching up with friends (SG50 Home, 2015).

In conclusion, social innovations are new ideas and approaches that help to address social concerns through collaboration with the targeted beneficiaries and other stakeholders to create a more positive impact to address the social needs of the community. Social innovations are also promoted in Singapore through organisations and initiatives such as the SIP where social innovations ideas are brought to and carried out to help create a more positive change to our society.
References

Davies, A. & Simon, J. (2013). People powered Social Innovation: The Need for Citizen

Engagement. Social Space, 38-43.

Jacobs, M. (2013, May 14). Social innovations: lessons from Singapore, South Korea and
Taiwan. theguardian. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/social-enterprise-network/2013/may/14/social-innovation-singapore-south-korea-taiwan

Lien Centre for Social Innovation. (n.d.). About us. Retrieved from

https://centres.smu.edu.sg/lien/about-us/

Lim, J. & Yeap, D. (2009, January). Social Innovation. Civil Service College. Retrieved from
https://www.cscollege.gov.sg/Knowledge/Pages/Social-Innovation.aspx
Ong, A. (2016, April 21). Social Innovation Park launches book; reveals plans for a lifestyle
area. The Straits Times. Retrieved from http://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/social-innovation-park-launches-book-reveals-plans-for-a-lifestyle-area

SG50 Home. (2015). Uniquely Singapore: Void Decks. Retrieved from

http://www.sg50home.sg/uniquely-singapore-void-decks.html

Social Innovation Park. (n.d.). Home. Retrieved from

http://www.socialinnovationpark.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=135&Itemid=82

Social Innovators Hack!. (n.d.). Events. Retrieved from

http://www.upsingapore.com/events/social-innovators-hack/

Tucker, S. (2014). Social Innovation for Public Service Excellence. Global Centre for Public

Service Excellence.

World Toilet. (n.d.). Our Story. Retrieved from http://worldtoilet.org/who-we-are/our-story/

Thursday, August 11, 2016

Co-operatives: A different kind of Social Enterprise

In the news article “Social enterprises, cooperatives ‘help to make for a better Singapore’” by Ramesh on Channel NewsAsia, the news article explained how social enterprises and co-operatives help to make Singapore a better society. The article focused on the National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) Foodfare Co-operative where Mr Seah explained how Foodfare aimed to help keep prices of food for all Singaporeans affordable despite growing tax rates. Mr Seah also explained that NTUC did not only benefit union members but all Singaporeans as well. Co-operatives are very similar to social enterprises as seen in the article where NTUC Foodfare’s social mission was to keep food prices affordable for all Singaporeans. This leads to the question of how different are co-operatives from social enterprises. The answer is that co-operatives are very similar to social enterprises with the difference being their working model.
A co-operative is defined as an association of people who share similar beliefs or common end goals who have voluntarily joined together to form a joint or democratically-controlled business. The members of co-operatives also provide assistance to one another to help everyone achieve their goals (Ministry of Social and Family Development, 2014). In Singapore, co-operatives are registered with the Singapore National Co-operatives Federation (SNCF), SNCF aims to make a difference in society through the co-operative movement. SNCF helps members of the co-operative strengthen their own enterprises with mutual help from the members themselves. Thus, this would give enterprises owned by the members of the co-operative the ability to serve the society better by addressing social and economic needs (Singapore National Co-operative Federation, 2016). One of the first social enterprise that was established in Singapore dating back to 1925 was a co-operative which was the Singapore Government Servants’ Co-operative Thrift and Loan Society. The co-operative was established to cater to the needs of civil servants, teachers, custom officers and those working in the private sector during that time as the people then were unable to receive financial assistance due to the lack of banks (Prakash & Tan, 2014).
In Singapore, co-operatives form the majority of the more established social enterprises in Singapore with some common examples being NTUC Co-operative Private Ltd (Prakash & Tan, 2014). In Singapore, the definition of a social enterprise is not very specific which helps to encourage new social enterprise start-ups to promote the growth of the social enterprise sector in Singapore. Normal social enterprises that are established are also self-defined. In comparison, co-operatives have regulations to follow. For example, co-operatives have to follow regulations that are set such as distributing surplus gained in proportion to the effort put in by members of the co-operative. Co-operatives are also required to meet certain criteria such as promoting the economic interest of its members in accordance to the co-operative principles. However, despite the difference in the model the business takes on, a co-operative is a social enterprise as it fulfils the criteria of meeting the needs of its members by providing goods and services as its social cause (Mak, 2012; Prakash & Tan, 2014).
One of the more well-known co-operative would be the NTUC Co-operative Private Ltd. The NTUC Co-operative Private Ltd aims to help the people of Singapore remain employable throughout their life. NTUC also aims to help increase the social status as well as the well-being of its members (National Trades Union Congress, n.d.). Under the co-operative, NTUC Fairprice Co-operative Ltd was also founded in 1973 with the aim to help keep the cost of living in Singapore affordable by setting up supermarkets such as Fairprice Finest, Fairprice Xpress and Cheers that keep prices of everyday necessities affordable for all Singaporeans (FairPrice, n.d.; Sim, 2015). Next, there is also the NTUC Social Enterprise which is the shareholder of the co-operative that does the most to address social issues in Singapore. NTUC Social Enterprise aims to address social needs and empower the people in Singapore to live better lives by meeting needs in areas such as providing daily necessities and healthcare NTUC Social Enterprises, 2016). Thus, NTUC shows how co-operatives can help address social issues in Singapore.

In conclusion, co-operatives are social enterprises as well because they help to meet the needs of its members through the provision of goods and services. Furthermore, co-operatives may also address social and environmental issues in Singapore. However, co-operatives have a different working model as they are required to follow certain regulations and meet certain criteria unlike normal social enterprises that can be self-defined. Co-operatives are also different as they operate with mutual assistance and help from its members whereas normal social enterprises are more likely to receive help from organisations such as the Singapore Centre for Social Enterprise which is also known more commonly as raiSE (Singapore Centre for Social Enterprise, 2016).
References
FairPrice. (n.d.). About us. Retrieved from https://www.fairprice.com.sg/wps/portal/fp/aboutus
Mak, Y. T. (2012, February). Primer on Governance for Social Enterprises in Singapore. Social
Enterprise Association Ltd.
Ministry of Social and Family Development. (2014, July 30). General Information on Co-
operatives in Singapore. Retrieved from https://app.msf.gov.sg/Policies/Archived-Topics/Caring-and-Active-Community/Promoting-Community-Involvement/Co-operative-Societies/General-Information-on-Co-operatives-in-Singapore
National Trades Union Congress. (n.d.). About NTUC. Retrieved from
https://www.ntuc.org.sg/wps/portal/up2/home/aboutntuc
NTUC Social Enterprises. (2016). Overview. Retrieved from
http://ntucsocialenterprises.sg/about-us/overview/
Prakash, R. & Tan, P. (2014). Landscape of Social Enterprises in Singapore. Social
Entrepreneurship in Asia: Working Paper No.1.
Ramesh, S. (2013, March 6). Social enterprises, cooperatives “help to make for a better
Singapore”. Channel NewsAsia. Retrieved from http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/social-enterprises-coope/596880.html
Sim, C. (2015). National Trades Union Congress. National Library Board. Retrieved from
Singapore Infopedia.
Singapore Centre for Social Enterprise. (2016). What we do. Retrieved from
            https://www.raise.sg/what-we-do/
Singapore National Co-operative Federation. (2016). SNCF Profile. Retrieved from
http://www.sncf.org.sg/web/sncf/about-us/profile-mission-of-sncf