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Yunus Social Business

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Yunus Social Business (YSB) is a social business venture capital fund and advisory services company that initiates and manages Social Business development programmes around the world. As the international implementation arm for Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Muhammad Yunus’s concept of Social Business,[1][2] YSB sets up and finances the development of social businesses via in-country Incubator Funds. YSB currently operates in Albania, Brazil, Haiti, Togo and Tunisia, with headquarters in Frankfurt, Germany. YSB currently consists of a team of 22 people.[3]

History

YSB was co-founded by Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus in 2011 as a spin-off from the Grameen Creative Lab, to focus on the creation of and support to social businesses outside of Bangladesh.[4][5] Some of YSB's activities, including its programmes in Haiti, were initiated while still under the Grameen Creative Lab brand. YSB's approach is to use and adapt management consulting and venture capital methodologies, as well as international development best-practices, in a social business context.[citation needed]

Social Business Incubator Funds

YSB’s Incubator Fund methodology combines common practice from the traditional venture capital industry with knowledge and experience from the development sector. The method provides start-up incubation in parallel to financing to local social business entrepreneurs and implementation teams. Typical target social business projects may be led by single entrepreneurs, by NGOs seeking to convert certain revenue-generating activities into a social business format, or by large companies looking for a more sustainable way of implementing some of their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activities.

Country Initiatives

YSB's Incubator Funds are most advanced in two countries, Haiti and Albania. YSB is also currently setting up operations in Brazil, Togo and Tunisia.[citation needed]

YSB Haiti

Based in Port-au-Prince, YSB Haiti incubates social businesses especially in three strategic areas: Education and Vocational Training, Agriculture and Environment and Nutrition.

YSB has invested in a vocational training centre in Port-au-Prince, which has enrolled over 950 students in Entrepreneurship and Financial Literacy courses.[6]

YSB has also invested in three poultry farms and a bakery[citation needed] that aim to improve access to nutrition and necessities in a country that depends heavily on imports for basic food and raw materials. Furthermore, the profits of these social businesses are used to subsidize seven local schools,[citation needed] educating over 900 children[citation needed] in remote rural areas.

YSB has also invested in a jatropha plantation.[citation needed] which secures income for 200 farmers,[citation needed] The planting of jatropha prevents soil erosion, and grows edible jatropha fruits that are processed into biofuel and animal feed.

YSB Albania

YSB launched the Social Business Movement of Albania in April 2012.[7] With a local team in Tirana, the YSB Albania Incubator is identifying and developing the first social businesses across the country. The first social business investments have been approved in the first quarter of 2013. YSB Albania has also organized a nationwide Social Business Plan Competition, as well as developing joint activities with several development agencies, municipalities and universities to encourage the creation and growth of more social businesses.[8]

The Government of Albania is a major supporter of the initiative through the newly-created public ‘Agency for the Promotion of Social Business (Nxitja e Biznesit Social, NBS).[9]

YSB Africa

YSB, working together with the African Development Bank (AfDB) Department of Human Development (OSHD), and financed by the Policy and Human Resource Development Grant of Japan (PHRDG), launched a Holistic Social Business Movement in Africa in December 2012. As part of this movement, YSB and the AfDB will first raise awareness through National Conferences on Social Business in Tunisia, Togo, and Uganda and subsequently will establish Social Business incubators and funds in Tunisia and Togo in the second half of 2013. The National Conference on Social Business in Tunisia took place in March 2013, at IHEC in Carthage, Tunisia.[10]

See also

References

  1. ^ Yunus, Muhammad (2009). Creating a World Without Poverty: Social Business and the Future of Capitalism. PublicAffairs. pp. 320. ISBN 978-1-58648-667-9.
  2. ^ http://www.foxnews.com/world/2012/10/13/nobel-peace-laureate-muhammad-yunus-announces-financing-for-ocial-businesses-in/
  3. ^ http://www.whatchado.net/videos/saskiathais_bruysten
  4. ^ Muhammad (2011). Building Social Business: The New Kind of Capitalism that Serves Humanity's Most Pressing Needs. PublicAffairs. pp. 256.ISBN 978-1-58648-956-4
  5. ^ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/11/muhammas-yunus-social-business_n_924877.html
  6. ^ http://www.businessweek.com/ap/2012-10-13/muhammad-yunus-announces-financing-in-haiti
  7. ^ http://shekulli.com.al/web/p.php?id=14368&kat=104
  8. ^ http://top-channel.tv/video.php?id=22041
  9. ^ http://www.km.gov.al/?fq=brenda&m=news&lid=16507
  10. ^ http://www.afdb.org/en/news-and-events/article/the-afdb-and-nobel-laureate-muhammad-yunus-launch-social-business-in-africa-11614/
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