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Social enterprise is now becoming a popular means to overcome the economic and social problems of the Philippines.

Having been born in the Philippines myself, and having worked there in a number of social organisations, I know the extent of the challenges there. It?s encouraging to find that those wanting to improve the situation in the Philippines are now coming up with new ideas, integrating business acumen with social impact.

There are a number of Philippine organisations that support social enterprise as a viable means to help the country. Here are just some of them, as well as a case study of a successful Filipino social enterprise.

1. Philippine Social Enterprise Network

The Philippine Social Enterprise Network, Inc. (PhilSEN) is an organisation that supports vibrant and sustainable people's enterprises at the core of a democratised and sovereign Philippine economy. Their mission is to build a critical mass of social enterprises within the country, because a strong network of social businesses for the poor can promote market development. It can also enable the development of replicable models and strategies, knowledge sharing, and growth.
PhilSEN is a network organisation that pursues strategies that are area-based and industry focused. They support the development of enterprises in sub-sectors at the area level that will play a vital role in the development of their local economies, as well as in selected industries at the national level. This involves development and replication of successful social business models, so PhilSEN adopts the Community of Practice (CoP) approach to relationship building and knowledge resource management among members.

2. Ashoka Philippines Supports the Young Social Entrepreneur

Ashoka Philippines is part of a global association to support the social entrepreneur. Their goal is to encourage the development of solutions to the world's most urgent social problems, and since 1981 the organisation has elected over 2,000 leading social entrepreneurs as Ashoka Fellows.

They are provided with living stipends, professional support and access to a global network of peers to support their ideas. In the Philippines, Ashoka is working on a Youth Venture that enables young people to learn early in life that they can lead social change. Youth Venture inspires and invests in teams of young people to start and lead their own social ventures, which is building a powerful network of young changemakers across the world.

In the Philippines the program is lead by Harvey Keh and Katrina Wy. They are looking for partner companies, foundations, schools, community-based organizations, media and government offices to cooperate on their mission.

3. Philippine Social Entrepreneurship Club

The Philippine Social Entrepreneurship Club was started by the Ateneo de Manila University's School of Government and the Ateneo Center for Social Entrepreneurship. It is intended to be a learning and support group for social entrepreneurs, advocates, and supporters where members can learn from each other about the evolving principles and concepts behind social entrepreneurship.

By sharing their practical ideas and experience new insights can be gained on the best ways of developing and improving social enterprise in the Philippines. The Club is intended to support new social entrepreneurs who are in the initial phases of getting their social enterprises off the ground, as well as those that are currently running successful social enterprises.

The Club is open to any Filipino who is interested in learning more about social entrepreneurship for an annual membership fee of P1,800.

Social Enterprise Case Study: Rags2Riches Empowers Filipino Women

There are also a large number of successful social enterprises that are active in the Philippines today.

Rags2Riches is a social enterprise that was founded in the poverty-stricken neighbourhood of Payatas in Manila, Philippines. The 12,000 families that live here share the area with a seven-story high mountain of garbage, one of the largest solid waste dumps in the country.

However, this dump is also a source of income for the residents of Payatas, as each day they scour the refuse for anything of value, including cast off rags that the women weave into rugs. Because the local women could only produce up to 10 rugs a day, the profits on each rug were low and unscrupulous middlemen took a big cut.

However, 25 year old entrepreneur Reese Fernandez changed this situation by co-founding Rags2Riches, which links the craftspeople directly to their customers. This business does more than boost incomes, though, because it also equips women with business and life skills.


Matthew Alberto is a Filipino-born Australian social entrepreneur. He has his own social entrepreneurial projects in the Asia-Pacific and he runs his own social entrepreneurship blog He has worked in the Philippines for Gawad Kalinga Community Development Foundation, the Commission on Human Rights of the Philippines and the UNESCO National Commission of the Philippines.

All views expressed within this article are those of the writer and not of the BBC.