November 23, 2022
ARNO published the Study on social enterprises, Macedonia received the first Registry!
On the 22nd of November in Skopje, organized by the National Youth Council of Macedonia (NMSM), a conference was held promoting the Basic Study and Registry of for Social Enterprises in Macedonia (more information below), prepared by Marjan Icoski and Olga Rajcic from ARNO. At the conference, the organizers presented the mladipretpriemaci.mk platform and invited their 10 new grantees to talk about their existing and future social enterprises and future work. Since this process is significant for the work of ARNO and, in general, for the development of social entrepreneurship in our country, we have something little more to tell you, so be warned against this longer article 🙂
- (Transparency and Inclusion) Some of you follow our work closely because we want to share everything we do, not only for transparency (which we need in the sector) but also for inspiration, collaborations and opportunity to involve as much as possible diverse actors. Some of you remember that a few months ago we were quite vocal (maybe bit pushy, too:)) with the mapping processes, organizing focus groups, alerting and inviting everyone to be a part of the youth social enterprises mapping process. In the past period, our colleagues Marjan Icoski and Olga Rajcikj devoted themselves to making a Baseline Study study of social enterprises in Macedonia, with a special focus on young people. In addition to the study, an analysis was made for the needs of social enterprises, and what was the main reason to say YES to the colleagues from NMSM for this challenge is one product – The Registry of Social Enterprises. A big “Bravo” to Mac and Ole for working tirelessly and dedicatedly on this, a big “Thank you” to everyone who shared the initiative (shutout to our national media entities too), a big “Bravo” to everyone who took the time to be part of these processes, and a big “LET’S DO THIS” to everyone who get involved in future.
- (Well, congratulations to all of us) The registry is a product, the first of its kind in our country, which aims to synthesize basic information about social enterprises that are publicly available to the general public.
- (Publicly available data, in one place) Data from the registry are publicly available and open for use by citizens and all interested parties, with the aim of informing, but also initiating new collaborations between social enterprises, businesses and state institutions. The creation of a registry of this kind will enable the visibility of existing social enterprises in which young people work or led them, but it will also serve as a resource for further analysis of the capacities and needs of existing social enterprises.
- (Let’s use services/products from social enterprises) In the very process of creating the register, the research team recognized the potential for its use as a tool that entities from the ecosystem (companies from the private sector, municipalities, institutions, etc.) can use for procurement processes and thus support the (youth) social enterprises (e.g. purchase of organic flavorings, accommodation in a hotel-protection society, eco promotional material made by a green business, souvenirs made by people with Down syndrome, purchase of furniture from second hand etc.)
- (Proactivity) The register is a living document, which will only be as good as we are. You will at the page additional link for those SEs who were not mapped, those SEs who were not available, those who have started work in the meantime, the can all self-register. Thanks to all colleagues who lead programs, projects, initiatives related to social enterprises (a big thanks also to the Regional Support Centers from the Support for Social Enterprises project) for the past and future involvement. Through your/our work at local level, through the motivation to support and strengthen social enterprises, we all justify our work and existence.
- (The Big Picture) For anyone interested in the process and the bigger picture, the website provides link to the Study. The study and the registry are an attempt to reflect the actual situation of social enterprises and to provide answers to important questions related to their structures, operations and their capacities. Additionally, this documents define youth social enterprises, note their number, youth involvement and positive impact on them. In total, the study identifies 57 social enterprises, most of them located in Skopje and the Skopje Region, which offer diversified products and services to the market, of which the most popular are the production of organic food and organic products, education for children and youth, inclusive and sustainable tourism, social services for vulnerable categories of citizens and waste management. We all need to build this big picture together and contribute to it with new examples of social enterprises that, with their products and services, do good for the communities and/or for the environment.