ISEA proposes SE to achieve SDGs
Dr. Marie Lisa Dacanay, President of ISEA, proposed social entrepreneurship as a platform for innovation and multistakeholder collaboration to achieve poverty eradication and to leave no one behind during the Asia Pacific CSO Forum for Sustainable Development on March 31 to April 2, 2016 in Bangkok, Thailand.
She added that social entrepreneurship could serve as framework for innovative public-private partnerships that are anchored on scaling up the outreach and impact of social enterprises as well as replicating successful models that have effectively provided sustainable livelihoods, quality social services and transformed the lives of the poor and marginalized in various countries in the region.
Given this, she urged the Regional CSO (Civil Society Organization) Engagement Mechanism to rename its one constituency into Social and Community Enterprise Constituency, to recognize the contribution of social enterprises towards the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Among the recommendations of the CSOs in the forum is to ensure meaningful and institutionalized participation of civil society, particularly of diverse women’s rights groups, as equal partners in sustainable development at the regional, national and local levels.
At the end of the forum, CSOs prepared statements on various development issues that were later presented to the Asia Pacific Forum for Sustainable Development (APFSD) attended by representatives of member States, United Nations institutions and other institutions, major groups and other stakeholders.
APFSD 2016 is said to be the first regional forum on sustainable development to take place following the adoption of the 2030 Agenda in September 2015. It is organized by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific and is being attended by representatives of member states, United Nations institutions and other institutions, major groups and other stakeholders.