Română Dorotea Daniele: How Diesis Network is supporting social enterprises in Europe and globally
Dorotea Daniele, Head of EU Partnerships at Diesis Network spoke at Enterprising for Tomorrow 2024 conference about the organization’s mission, strategic goals, and activities to support and promote social economy enterprises in Europe and globally.
Key discussion insights
Role and Mission of Diesis
Diesis has been dedicated to the development of the social economy since its foundation in 1997, now encompassing over 60 organizations across more than 30 countries, including Europe, Africa, Canada, and India.
Strategic Goals and Activities
Diesis emphasizes participation, knowledge, and visibility as core components of its strategy to amplify the impact of the social economy.
They support events both at national and European levels, organize communication campaigns, and raise awareness on social economy topics, such as socially responsible public procurement.
Knowledge and Visibility
The organization focuses on increasing the visibility of the social economy and sharing best practices and research. It collaborates on projects related to digital and green transitions, emphasizing the importance of staying competitive and addressing economic, societal, and environmental challenges.
Support for Social Enterprises
Diesis works on facilitating access for social enterprises to markets and public procurement opportunities.
The organization also emphasizes capacity building, improving management and technical skills, particularly in new sectors like digital and green economies.
Recommendations for Romania
The speaker highlighted the need for an enabling ecosystem with supportive legislation and policies, coordination between different ministries, financial tools beyond grants, and increased visibility for social enterprises.
Emphasis was also placed on sharing good practices, participating in socially responsible public procurement, and building the capacity of social enterprises.
“Knowledge is important for the social economy because it’s really crucial for social enterprises to remain competitive and to address economic, societal, and environmental challenges.”
Dorotea Daniele, Head of EU Partnerships at Diesis Network
- Published in Conference
Timothy Ghilain, Chief of Staff at EASPD: how the B-WISE project is shaping the WISE sector across EU
Timothy Ghilain, Chief of Staff at EASPD, spoke at Enterprising for Tomorrow 2024 conference about the B-WISE project – Blueprint for Sectoral Cooperation on Skills in Work Integration Social Enterprises, an Erasmus + project coordinated by EASPD with the support of ENSIE.
“Digitalization cannot be done on its own. We need to have a coherent approach to train, retrain, and reskill in all skills and targeted skills depending on the needs of the individual.”
Timothy Ghilain, Chief of Staff at EASPD
Discussion Highlights
The B-WISE project is an initiative by the European Commission designed to create a model for increasing the skills of workers in work integration social enterprises (WISEs). It involves 27 partners across 13 countries and aims to develop a blueprint that can be replicated throughout the EU.
Research and Needs Assessment:
The project began with extensive research to identify the skills needs of staff in WISEs across the EU. This research highlighted significant variations in needs based on geographic and socio-economic contexts.
Digitalization and Skills Training:
A major focus of the project is on digitalization. The project seeks to bridge the digital skills gap by creating a coherent approach to training and reskilling individuals. This includes addressing the specific training needs before introducing digital skills training.
Development of Training Modules:
The project has developed various training modules tailored to the needs identified during the research phase. These modules are available on the project website and are being piloted in partner countries.
Certification and Adaptation:
Efforts are underway to certify the training modules with national authorities. The goal is to provide adaptable training programs that can be customized to fit the specific context of each country.
Importance of Government Support:
Timothy Ghilain emphasized the crucial role of government and local authorities in supporting digitalization efforts through funding, reskilling programs, and providing access to necessary resources.
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Cyril Gouiffès, European Investment Fund: Equity products in supporting social impact ventures
Cyril Gouiffès, Head of Social Impact Unit, European Investment Fund (EIF) spoke at Enterprising for Tomorrow 2024 conference about the role of equity products in supporting social impact ventures and how these products complement debt and guarantee products.
Discussion Highlights
- Equity Investment for Social Impact:
- The speaker emphasized that the role of EIF is to invest in funds that target startups with a social impact strategy. These are not just any venture capital funds, but those with a strict measurement of impact.
- Equity investments differ from microfinance or non-bank financial institutions as they do not have restrictions on the amount of turnover for the companies they finance.
- Growth and Market Size:
- The speaker highlighted the growth of the market over the years. For instance, in 2014, the total social impact investment was 10 million euros in one fund, whereas last year, it grew to 700 million euros across several funds.
- Challenges and Opportunities in Romania:
- Despite active investments in Europe since 2013, the speaker notes the lack of investment in Romanian social impact funds. This is not due to rejection but because they have received very few proposals from Romania over the past decade.
- Accountability and Measurement of Impact:
- The speaker stresses that social finance must not only report on social impact but also be accountable for the impact performance. This involves strict measurement and ensuring that investments truly add social value.
“Back in 2014, the total amount of social impact investment within that 1 billion euros was 10 million euros in one single fund. Last year, the total investment volume of the equity team amounted to 3 billion euros, with 700 million euros focused on social impact.”
“We have to date no investment in Romania… it’s still a bit of a mystery why in these 10 years we have not managed to be able to invest in a Romanian social impact fund.”
“Social finance will strive and flourish if and only if it can be very strong on its social value add. It is not enough to report on social impact; entrepreneurs, investors, intermediaries, and ourselves have to be accountable for the impact performance.”
- Published in Conference