“Over 100 participants representing 13 countries attended the first Social Enterprise Advocacy and Leveraging Conference in Asia (SEAL-Asia) co-organised by the Institute for Social Entrepreneurship in Asia and Oxfam held on November 25-27, 2014 at the AIM Conference Center, Makati, Philippines. The two-day event with the theme, Transforming Economies through Social Entrepreneurship: Towards a Post 2015 Agenda brought together representatives from social entrepreneurship organizations, networks and resource institutions in Asia, scholars doing research on social entrepreneurship in the region, and resource persons from the business sector and government.

SEAL-Asia was envisioned to become a regional platform that will support the social enterprise sector to be a major player in addressing poverty, inequality and sustainable development in the region. ISEA and Oxfam are on a strategic partnership to pursue this initiative.
The conference served as a venue for sharing perspectives, experiences and insights in the understanding and practice of social enterprise development in Asia. An integral component of the event was the presentation of the results of the ISEA-Oxfam research on poverty reduction and women economic leadership, which was about the roles, potentials and challenges of social enterprises in developing countries in Asia.”