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ISIP Kicks Off Its Social Impact Accelerator

By UNDP Philippines

October 18^th, 2018

After a rigorous selection process from hundreds of applications nationwide, ten social enterprises were chosen to be a part of the inaugural batch of the Social Impact Accelerator.

The Social Impact Accelerator under the Innovation for Social Impact Partnership (ISIP) provides selected social enterprises with a year of support, six months of which is an intensive program designed to provide access to markets, talents, capital, and guidance to grow their business and impact.

The half-day onboarding session held last October 3, 2018 at Astoria Plaza signalled the start of the Social Impact Accelerator and the beginning of their journey with ISIP.

ISIP Kicks Off Its Social Impact Accelerator

The ten social enterprises were formally welcomed by Australian Ambassador Amanda Gorely who shares the impact ISIP will have in improving the environment for social enterprises in the Philippines and providing inspiration for the next generation of social enterprise leaders.

“TOGETHER WITH UNDP AND PHILDEV, ISIP WILL SHOW THAT SOCIAL ENTERPRISES ARE INVESTIBLE, BANKABLE AND VIABLE WAYS TO CONTRIBUTE TO THE SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS.”

After acknowledging each start-up’s role in tackling parts of the Sustainable Development Goals, she parts with words of encouragement for the participants: “I encourage you to engage with the accelerator and your mentors to unleash scalable, sustainable and totally new approaches to old development problems.”

ISIP Kicks Off Its Social Impact Accelerator

Joining Ambassador Gorely in welcoming the participants is UNDP Philippines Country Director Titon Mitra. He starts by walking the participants through the ISIP journey which began two and a half years ago upon realizing the difficulties young entrepreneurs in the Philippines face and the opportunity to tap into immense inert capital globally. He moves to sharing his vision for the chosen enterprises with great optimism.

“THE OTHER THING IS THAT WE ALSO NEED TO THINK OF NOT JUST YOU, BUT HOW DO WE CHANGE THE WHOLE ECOSYSTEM IN THE PHILIPPINES SO THERE’S MUCH MORE OF YOU?”

Compared to conventional and linear approaches to development in institutions, he adds, “the real excitement of working with you is that you don’t think that way. You think in a much more disruptive way; you come up with ideas because those ideas matter to you as an individual...you’ve come up with what you think is the solution...and that really is the future of development."

ISIP Kicks Off Its Social Impact Accelerator

ISIP Kicks Off Its Social Impact Accelerator

To introduce ISIP is ISIP Program Manager and PhilDev Program Director Emil Tapnio. He explains the selection criteria and stresses an ISIP approach that focused on impact first. He then briefs the audience of the three targeted outputs of ISIP:

Entrepreneurship – access to finance, technology and support-mechanisms to social enterprises (SEs) provided
Education - to increase the pipeline of SEs in the country, ISIP aims to develop the entrepreneurship capacities of SEs, faculty and students in creating social innovations
Policy Agenda - to develop policy agenda that will even out the playing field for SEs and established businesses in pursuit of SE-supportive landscapes

ISIP Program Coordinator Katherine Khoo then gives an overview of the Accelerator schedule introduces the ISIP resource partners.

ISIP Kicks Off Its Social Impact Accelerator

ISIP Kicks Off Its Social Impact Accelerator

ISIP Kicks Off Its Social Impact Accelerator

In his closing remarks, PhilDev Executive Director Samuel Guevara, a former social entrepreneur himself, reminds the participants to make the most out of this opportunity as these support systems were not available years ago when he started.

After Mr. Guevara's message, individual pre-program assessments for each start-up were conducted.

For the founding members of the social enterprises and their teams, the end of this on boarding session only marks the beginning of their exciting year-long journey with ISIP.

Stay tuned for the next round of application calls for the second batch of social entrepreneurs to be supported by ISIP before the year ends.

The Social Impact Accelerator is one of the initiatives under the Innovation for Social Impact Partnership (ISIP) project co-implemented by PhilDev Foundation and UNDP Philippines, with support from the Australian Government Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT).

ISIP Kicks Off Its Social Impact Accelerator

ISIP Kicks Off Its Social Impact Accelerator

ISIP Kicks Off Its Social Impact Accelerator

ISIP Kicks Off Its Social Impact Accelerator

ISIP Kicks Off Its Social Impact Accelerator

ISIP Kicks Off Its Social Impact Accelerator

Batch 1 Social enterprises

ISIP Kicks Off Its Social Impact Accelerator

ISIP Kicks Off Its Social Impact Accelerator

ISIP Kicks Off Its Social Impact Accelerator

ISIP Kicks Off Its Social Impact Accelerator

ISIP Kicks Off Its Social Impact Accelerator

ISIP Kicks Off Its Social Impact Accelerator

ISIP Kicks Off Its Social Impact Accelerator

ISIP Kicks Off Its Social Impact Accelerator

ISIP Kicks Off Its Social Impact Accelerator

ISIP Kicks Off Its Social Impact Accelerator

ISIP Kicks Off Its Social Impact Accelerator

get to know more about isip and the founders of the 10 social enterprises

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