Round table on social entrepreneurship
22/02/2023Within the project “Initiative for the development of social entrepreneurship”, the association “Putokaz Kragujevac” organized a round table on the topic “Social entrepreneurship – problems and perspectives of development” with the aim of creating a favorable business climate for the development of this type of business. Although the Law on Social Entrepreneurship was adopted a little more than a year ago, it is still a big unknown. There is great interest in this type of business, especially among hard-to-employ population categories, but, at the same time, representatives of competent local, regional and national institutions do not have clear guidelines and answers to the questions of interested citizens.
It was concluded that intersectoral cooperation is necessary, first of all networking of local actors in order to develop social entrepreneurship, but also strengthening of existing ones and creation of preconditions for the establishment of new social enterprises. Also, it is necessary for the competent institutions to provide space and manpower, i.e. that in the coming period Kragujevac has an office, a place where citizens who want to establish social enterprises can receive support and assistance that should be provided jointly by the public, private and civil sectors.
The large turnout and the full hall of the Kragujevac City Assembly speak in favor of the fact that there is great interest in social entrepreneurship. Representatives of the Coalition for the Development of Solidarity Economy, the City of Kragujevac, the National Employment Service, Helvetas, “Citizen Initiatives”, social enterprises “Naša kuća” from Belgrade and “Zadrugarstvo” from Kragujevac, Kragujevac social welfare institutions, as well as representatives of civil sectors, citizens’ associations, etc. The meeting was also attended by the Ombudsman of the city of Kragujevac, representatives of the Council for Gender Equality, the Regional Chamber of Commerce, etc.
It was concluded that intersectoral cooperation is necessary, first of all networking of local actors in order to develop social entrepreneurship, but also strengthening of existing ones and creation of preconditions for the establishment of new social enterprises. Also, it is necessary for the competent institutions to provide space and manpower, i.e. that in the coming period Kragujevac has an office, a place where citizens who want to establish social enterprises can receive support and assistance that should be provided jointly by the public, private and civil sectors. The large turnout and the full hall of the Kragujevac City Assembly speak in favor of the fact that there is great interest in social entrepreneurship. Representatives of the Coalition for the Development of Solidarity Economy, the City of Kragujevac, the National Employment Service, Helvetas, “Citizen Initiatives”, social enterprises “Naša kuća” from Belgrade and “Zadrugarstvo” from Kragujevac, Kragujevac social welfare institutions, as well as representatives of civil sectors, citizens’ associations, etc. The meeting was also attended by the Ombudsman of the city of Kragujevac, representatives of the Council for Gender Equality, the Regional Chamber of Commerce, etc.
The presentation of the business of social enterprises aroused great interest. Anica Spasov from “Naše kuća” from Belgrade emphasized the necessity of involving various actors in joint problem solving in local communities, but also confirmed that social enterprises can work well by following the needs of the market. Katarina Marinković from “Zadrugarstva” from Kragujevac also presented her products and work. Given that the associations in Kragujevac, especially people with disabilities, had many questions and doubts, we expect that the first in a series of discussions that will follow in the coming period is when the Program is implemented, which is the last in a series of systemic steps for the full implementation of the Law on Social Entrepreneurship . Departmental institutions will have to prepare and provide support to citizens considering the fact that the development of this type of business is also necessary in the process of European integration. There are about 1,200 social enterprises operating in Serbia (of which about 800 are cooperatives) and they employ about 10,000 workers, which is about 0.6% of the workforce, while Europe has about 2 million legal entities operating on the principles of the solidarity economy with about 15 million employees. which is almost 6.5% of the working population. It should be noted that the last data for Serbia were compiled in 2012… According to our knowledge, local governments will most likely have to prepare Local Action Plans for social entrepreneurship by the middle of 2024. The Association Putokaz Kragujevac organized the Round Table thanks to the project “For an active civil society together – ACT” which, with the support of the Government of Switzerland, is implemented in Serbia by Helvetas Swiss Intercooperation and Civic Initiatives. As part of the round table, a sales exhibition of the works of the Kragujevac associations, the Association of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Šumadija, the Association for the Support of Persons with Disabilities “Egal”, the Association for Helping Persons with Autism, the Club of Creative Women “Različak” and “Iskra” was organized.