This month we caught up with Gerry Higgins, Managing Director of Social Enterprise World Forum (SEWF) to learn about the organisation’s journey and ambitions since Gerry first founded it as a project in 2008 while CEO at CEIS (Community Enterprise In Scotland).
Originally introduced to convene global leaders to share best practice at an annual event with CEIS hosting the launch event in 2008 and the privilege of hosting a second in 2018, SEWF has evolved into the leading network for social enterprises globally. Gerry tells us more below.
How did the Social Enterprise World Forum come about?
SEWF came about because we saw that social enterprises were growing in various countries around the world, but that they were completely unconnected with each other. Having had the privilege of establishing and working for a national intermediary in the UK, I was well connected with some players on various continents.
When I came to work in CEIS I discovered that Scotland was not, with a couple of exceptions, particularly well engaged with social enterprises around the world. We wanted to improve that, but we found that there was nobody leading the development of the social enterprise movement globally and whilst we felt that others might be better placed to do so, they were not keen to do it.
So, we decided to collaborate with others to establish SEWF. Initially we created it as a body to convene the global social enterprise community as best as we could, and to see if there was an appetite for stronger and enduring convening, conversation, and networking between social enterprises across the globe.
The first event in Edinburgh in 2008 showed that there absolutely was an appetite for this, and from that event a steering group was formed. It was an international group, and it established that the purpose was to grow the social enterprise movement and strengthen it around the world.
The original ambition was no more than to have one event in each continent and then hit the pause button to see whether it was worth continuing. We deliberately did not choose a Davos model where the world turns up to Edinburgh every year. We knew intuitively that it would create more value if each continent had the opportunity to host and to engage people. Also, for capacity and cost reasons, the attendance would be stronger when it is in a particular continent, and we thought that we needed to do that to understand what the potential for this was.
Can you briefly describe the SEWF journey since that initial launch event in Edinburgh in 2008?
The initial focus was around convening on each continent to learn the features and journey of social enterprises, as well as the reality they face. It was pretty clear after a number of events that there was huge support for SEWF, and that the community wanted us to continue to convene events to support and to raise different social enterprise issues. So, we developed a policy forum.
Our most recent one took place on May 24th to May 26th. It had over 600 people in attendance, and that was for policy, which is a dry topic in many people’s book, but there is a huge interest in understanding what policies and initiatives can help people to establish, lead, develop and grow social enterprises.
We are still convening the SEWF on a continental rotational basis, and the number of people attending the world forum is increasing, as are the number of countries represented on each continent each year.
Also, in addition to the policy forum, we have a youth forum, which recognises the huge interest amongst young people for social enterprise. We have also developed an academic forum for people who want to engage with teaching and research on social enterprise because that does not lend itself to significant time at the main world forum.
Another area where we have seen significant engagement is social procurement. We have raised the profile of social procurement, where we have been working with corporates and intermediaries to raise awareness about it, and we have introduced a verification for social enterprises.
In some countries there are national intermediaries that certify or verify social enterprises, but in many countries that does not exist at all. So, if a corporate wants to purchase from social enterprises, it cannot identify them. The global SEWF Verification will help with that challenge, while also raising awareness of social enterprises globally and supporting social enterprise ecosystem development more broadly.
SEWF has moved beyond convening to initiatives which will have a very practical benefit for social enterprise because the goods and services they sell are going to be purchased increasingly by governments and businesses.
How has your role developed since the SEWF launched in 2008?
SEWF started off as a project. When we first convened, it was not a legal entity. We were simply working with colleagues to identify hosts to run an event. CEIS was providing the event management capacity through myself and the event managers. My role was to make sure the steering group continued after the event, and a lot of that was done off the side of the desk. It was done as a voluntary initiative on top of the day job.
But it got to a point where SEWF needed to become an organisation rather than a project and as that happened, there were questions about who would lead that going forward. That was when I took the decision to stand down from CEIS, initially on a part time basis, but now on a full-time basis, and apply for the role of Managing Director of SEWF.
SEWF has gone from just convening one project to now an organisation where there are eight people involved in the team, and we are based on seven different countries. It has become a truly global organisation. We need to have people with different perspectives and expertise and so my team are based in the Scotland, England, Portugal, Spain, Sri Lanka, Nigeria, India, and the USA, so it is a multicultural group, and each brings their own perspectives and experience.
They also bring their own networks and that is particularly important. So, for example, by having a colleague based in Africa, we have much better access into the social enterprise community in Africa than if we were all based in Glasgow.
What would you say the biggest highlight or achievement has been of the Social Enterprise World Forum so far?
For me it is not a single activity or event. It is about growth, and how we are now being recognised as the peak body, or the lead agency for social enterprises globally. So that means that when the World Economic Forum wants to engage with the social enterprise world, SEWF is the body that is recognised as having the legitimacy of being able to represent, access and engage with the practitioners of social enterprise, alongside the intermediaries who are doing such valuable work at a national level.
That we are now engaged with global agencies and policymakers to make sure that economic discussions are engaging with social enterprise and that we are now a voice at that table is a huge achievement. We have a really important job to do here to make sure that social enterprises are in global conversations towards a fairer economy.
What is your ambition or your vision for the SEWF and the global sector?
In 2021, we had 3500 people attending from 132 countries and that is a long way from 425 people from 26 countries in September 2008. The ambition is not about numbers, I am not overly fussed about growing from 132 countries to 150, really. It is about relevance, depth and impact and it is much better if we have 120 countries with real strength and engagement in social enterprise, than more that are less engaged.
Also, the growth in numbers attending is completely insignificant at an in-person level because we are trying to balance that with our climate change obligations. We now actually have a cap on the number of people attending in person from long haul destinations to make sure that our event remains sustainable. That also means we are planning to grow the number of people attending digitally.
We have experimented with the model of community hubs so that people can attend events and have the networking benefit with people in their own country or their own city or town. This year we will have at least 40 community hubs around the world and that is an aspect of SEWF that is distinct to us.
In terms of the broader ambitions, it is simply to make sure that businesses, governments, and consumers engage with as many social enterprises as they possibly can. We want to improve that engagement, to make it stronger, so that we are continually adding value to the social enterprise movement.
What are you looking forward to the most at the upcoming SEWF in Brisbane in September?
I am looking forward to embracing the cultural diversity of Australia. Their indigenous social enterprises are very strong and very historic. This challenges the narrative we hear about social enterprise having started in the USA or the UK in the 1970’s or in the New Lanark or Mills in the 1800’s. In parts of the world, indigenous communities have been running businesses for the benefit of their communities for many centuries. The capitalist model of business for the benefit of owners or shareholders is a reasonably modern concept.
We have engaged with an Indigenous social enterprise committee as part of our organising for this event, and it will be well integrated into the main program alongside indigenous perspectives, experience and leaders from countries such as Australia, Canada, Taiwan and New Zealand.
I am looking forward to sessions which deal with the topics of social enterprises supporting refugees and migration. It would be silly for SEWF to ignore the reality that is impacting the world at the moment with migration caused by conflict, economic turmoil and breakdown of systems. There are so many social enterprises which are really at the front line of supporting migrants and refugees, and we are featuring that as a topic this year.
Dates for your diary
Academic Symposium: 27 September 2022 | Hybrid
SEWF22: 28-29 September 2022 | Hybrid
Rural Gathering: 2-5 October 2022 | In person
SEWF Youth Forum: 29 November 2022 | Digital
To register for this year’s SEWF events, visit www.sewfonline.com.