Last September, we held a TEDx Skoll Conversation in Chengdu, which brought together social entrepreneurs from different regions across China to demonstrate the positive role of social innovation in shaping a common future. This was not a one-off conversation. When the group learned that the 2020 Skoll World Forum would be virtual, with open sourced efforts from the larger community, China Alliance of Social Value Investment (CASVI) felt that there was no better way to introduce Chinese social entrepreneurs to the global stage and engage with the broader community. CASVI is dedicated to driving capital towards sustainable development, and one such way is towards social entrepreneurs who addresses social and environmental problems.
The virtual Skoll World Forum was held during the heights of the global pandemic, with escalating situations and great uncertainty. In China, the first waves of COVID-19 were coming to an end, and we were beginning to see a similar wave of questions, problems, and anxieties surface across the global communities. CASVI has closely followed the actions taken on by social entrepreneurs in the community, and it immediately became clear that their experiences could be of immense value to those just beginning to orientate themselves around COVID-19. With the overarching theme of “Collective Strength” in mind, CAVSI curated the session, “China social innovators response: actions and response during COVID-19” as an ecosystem event. We invited four social enterprises to share their actions in response to the pandemic:
Shenzhen Link Accessibility Co., Ltd is a social enterprise that provides systematic accessibility solutions to help every person enjoy modern civilization fairly and conveniently. Since its founding in 2016, Link Accessibility has built strong cooperation with major internet companies and hardware makers such as Alibaba, Tencent, Baidu, Oppo, and Huawei to offer accessibility for persons with visual and hearing disabilities and the elderly. During the outbreak, they immediately realized that essential COVID-19 information (such as maps highlighting areas with infected cases, list of nearby pharmacies with masks in stock) were not readily available for the 17 million visually impaired persons in China. They teamed up 12 people in 24 hours and launched a WeChat applet in one week to effectively increase information accessibility. A more detailed interview by CASVI can be found here.
As the first social enterprise to be certified by the B Corps in China, First Respondfaced the crisis by creating a network of citizen first aid responders, with the largest number of first aid trainings in the world. The outbreak was so sudden that it was hard for many people to know how to react. First Respond quickly developed online courses aimed at self-protection, including how to use masks, how to digest massive amounts of information, and policies suitable for any individual.
Founded in 2011, BottleDream produces social innovation content aimed at the younger generation. They tell stories of thousands of young changemakers to reach an audience of 30 million. They also develop and build online communities for a sustainable lifestyle, sell sustainable products, connect young entrepreneurs with companies and brands, and provide sustainable development and social innovation consulting and co-creation services. On January 25, they quickly responded by setting up an online group of volunteers to help the five million Wuhan citizens who were outside their home city, when Wuhan went into lockdown. Three days later, government departments in some cities noticed their efforts and encouraged the local government to introduce a series of policies to assist the Wuhan diaspora.
MSC is a global and independent sustainability consulting firm. They demystify sustainability by exploring the boundary between business and social issues and redefining the underlying logic of enterprises. MSC believes that enterprises can become sustainable via two avenues: produce business value in social issues and generate social impact in business logic. Since the COVID-19 outbreak, MSC developed a methodology to help those large enterprises less impacted by the epidemic to carry out their corporate social responsibility. Beyond simple donation of funds, MSC helped these enterprises integrate their own competences, accurately connect to SMEs in need of help through information channels such as Chamber of Commerce, and ensure the operation of basic businesses.
The rapid actions of these Chinese social entrepreneurs in mobilizing resources, integrating information, and connecting communities are the sort of innovations that ought not be ignored in China’s response to the pandemic. If the vertical power of the widely known administrative system ensures efficiency, it is the horizontal force, that is, the dynamic resilience from the community level, that guarantees vitality. Efficiency combined with vitality builds resilience for uncertain risks.
At present, more and more parts of China have returned to normal order, but also prudently. Hopefully, these efforts made here from Chinese social entrepreneurs will be seen by the wider international community, and help those still fighting in the center of the COVID-19 crisis.
Read more about how the Skoll Foundation is responding to COVID-19.
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