Social entrepreneurs are now using their talent to seek better answers to tough social problems at a time when the world has never needed them more
Historians tell us that an explosion of creativity occurs the moment the world starts complaining that there is nothing left to invent, or that the search for solutions to complex problems has come to an end. This explosion is fate’s way of reminding us that there is always something just over the horizon of knowledge. Social entrepreneurs are now using their talent to seek better answers to tough social problems at a time when the world has never needed them more. They are responding to challenges with solutions that leave business-as-usual in the dust. They want to use the power of knowledge and the principles of business to create a better world. Their primary objective is to make a contribution, not money. While top-down initiatives have traditionally helped drive social change, social entrepreneurs are increasingly trying to use market forces as an effective way to bring about change.
The rise of soloists signals the ultimate atomisation of the modern world. It also demonstrates that individual initiatives can be as powerful game-changers as collective efforts. The power and reach of individual creativity have grown in inverse proportion to the shrinking of the global village. The failure of conventional strategies to alleviate the problems that the marginalised face today has triggered the creative juices of the younger lot. It has catapulted them to a cutting-edge vanguard position. This approach leaves no room for alibis and is highly committed to delivering results. This new generation of innovators, many from Ivy League universities, IITs and IIMs, are former bankers, academics, technocrats, bureaucrats and consultants. They favour open-source solutions that share intellectual property; whether computer code or DNA sequences, so others can improve and build on their creations.
This is now a global phenomenon. A number of bright and committed individuals have given up the best of salaries to serve development causes. India’s villages are among the most promising destinations for them. Moving from villages to bigger cities is no longer the norm. Increasingly, a growing number of people are moving back to their roots or smaller cities. Whether it is disenchantment with city life or the availability of better opportunities in smaller areas, this trend of ‘reverse migration’ is slowly catching on.
India spends more on programmes for the poor than most developing countries, but is not getting the expected dividends that significant public expenditure would seem to warrant, and the needs of important population groups still remain partly addressed. This has been haunting social scientists and policy-makers. A major flaw in our development paradigm is that the focus is more on physical resources and less on human resources. Behind the gleaming images of icons of successful development revolutions is the untold saga of sacrifice of the grassroots staff that holds the fort as brave and heroic warriors. It is the latter’s incandescent honesty and unvarnished selfishness that impart purity to the mission and translate state policies into real ground action.
The honour and recognition that society owes to these brave, extraordinary individuals for their crusade for a cause bigger than them cannot be embodied in awards, promotions and citations. Though our focus is most often on issues such as chronic poverty, empowerment of women and the disenfranchised and a sustainable solution to economic instability, the lessons of all successful policies and programmes for achieving these objectives point to something we should never forget: The tenacious and committed officials and their families whose sacrifices have enabled and continue to make the world a far better and just place.
The influx of talents out of big cities to smaller centres is by no means an indication of aspiration deficit. Rather, it means these people are looking at the new port with a zeal that was earlier meant only for urban pockets. They want more fulfilling careers, ones that can enthuse and satiate their cravings. We are witnessing collaborative social entrepreneurship trying to bring about large-scale systemic change, giving us tools to navigate an increasingly complex and uncertain world with confidence, converting adversities into opportunities.
Social entrepreneurs are helping create an “everyone a changemaker world”, a world where each individual is driven by the idea of bringing about positive change. They have shown us that we inhabit a world where everyone must become a changemaker by adopting the path of teamwork, cognitive empathy and collaborative leadership for creative solution seeking.
We have the example of SEWA (Society for Education Welfare and Action) where highly talented women have devoted their entire lifetime to empowering poor women. It would be outright vanity to dream of becoming social heroes overnight. The real development story is an aggregate of initiatives in thousands of clusters led by extraordinary people, few of them known and the vast majority of them unknown. For instance, SEWA Rural promotes work-life balance through multiple initiatives that include time-off for parents to support their wards appearing for board exams and special leave so that employees can attend camps for holistic living. Working as a development worker on the ground requires an understanding of the local context. Development professionals working in complex social contexts need to be empowered to adapt interventions meaningfully and meet the needs of the people they serve. The development worker is an actor whose leadership is critical for sustainable change on the ground. Their understanding of ground realities and the actions they take are critical to the change that happens on the ground.
Development workers have their own vision and imagination of social change This imagination is anchored in their values; and these ideas inform their actions. When an intervention design is handed to them, they interpret it from their own world view, implement it in the context they are surrounded by, and calibrate their actions based on their understanding of the ground situation.
Development workers constantly engage with local realities and real world situations. And yet we seldom ask ourselves, “What is their vision of change? What agency do they exercise? What values inform their work? What processes do they use? What kind of leadership do they embody? What relationships do they build? What capabilities do they need to build to do better?”
An organisation must be able to create an environment that enables risk-taking, provides opportunities for capacity enhancement and spaces for reflection and learning for development workers. It must recognise and respect that its people are the ones working to bring about change on the ground.
We have to ensure that the development worker’s capacity and agency is strengthened to enable context-specific responses—it is a must for lasting and equitable development. This is possible only when the design of organisation systems and processes are anchored in values of dignity and respect for everyone in the organisation and spaces are provided for learning and adaptation on the ground. The vocabulary needs to change — from development worker to development leader in letter and spirit.
We must introspect and understand the processes within whose constraints the lower bureaucracy works. Senior bureaucrats are smart enough to build up defences in their decisions and may leave little paper trail to provide clues to their motives. Junior officials are not intelligent enough to understand the implications of their decisions and inadequate understanding of the long-term implications of their decisions also imposes severe handicaps for them. They are also under direct fire from the people around them. The system gives no protection to the sincere and honest among them.
There is much innovation and even heroism and sacrifice by staff of development agencies known only to project beneficiaries and other staff, which is not only left anonymous but also undocumented. We should really applaud and honour ordinary men and women, who have nobody to back them, yet are working doggedly to keep projects rolling. The real development story is an aggregate of initiatives in thousands of clusters led by extraordinary people, few of them known and the vast majority of them unknown.
When we analyse successful development interventions, we find that a lot of good programmes got their start when one individual looked at a familiar landscape in a fresh way. These practical idealists demonstrated passion, intellect, and gritty determination and were supported by heroic, skillful, and inspiring field staff. Pairing experts with “on the ground” teams and field workers has yielded many good ideas about how to address the problems of disadvantaged populations.
(The writer is Member, NITI Aayog’s National Committee on Financial Literacy and Inclusion for Women)
