Social Learning and Entrepreneurship

1
Research Topics in Sustainable Development
Seminar Center for International Development,
Kennedy School of Government Harvard University,
10 December 2003
Social Learning and Entrepreneurship
A Framework for Analyzing the Equator
Initiative and the 2002 Equator Prize Finalists
Calestous Juma and Vanessa Timmer 10 December
2003 Center for International Development Kennedy
School of Government Harvard University
2
Overview

• Implementing the Global Sustainable Development
  Agenda
• Social Learning and the Equator Initiative
• Entrepreneurship and the 2002 Equator Prize
  Finalists

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Sustainable Development
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Evolution of the Sustainable Development Agenda

• Awareness
• Consensus
• Integration
• Operations

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Implementing the Global Sustainable Development
Agenda
concrete actions and measures at all levels

• two types of official outcomes
• Type One
• Political Declaration
• Plan of Implementation
• Type Two
• Partnerships

involve all relevant actors to achieve widely
shared goals of sustainable development
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Social Learning and the Equator Initiative
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We must face up to an inescapable reality the
challenges of sustainability simply overwhelm
the adequacy of our response. With some
honorable exceptions, our responses are too few,
too little and too late. - Kofi Annan We the
Peoples the Role of the United Nations in the
21st Century
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Nature of the Challenge

• growing complexity
• uncertainty
• diversity of actors and perspectives
• knowledge intensive

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In order to bridge this gap between the growing
complexity of the challenge and our
response humanity has to draw on its ability to
learn
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Learning to implement the sustainable development
agenda is a social process of knowledge
acquisition, distribution, interpretation and
retention, and of action based on this
knowledge across multiple actors in society
Social Learning
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Social Learning

• social psychology
• learning of collective entities
• organizations
• society

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For the analytical framework
Social Learning is defined as increasing the
awareness and enhancing the capacity of social
systems to operationalize the global sustainable
development agenda
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The Equator Initiative is a manifestation of
societys aim to learn how to implement
sustainable development

• How to
• meet human development needs
• while protecting the earths life support systems

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The Equator Initiative is designed to reduce
poverty through the conservation and sustainable
use of biodiversity in the equatorial belt by
fostering, supporting and strengthening
community partnerships.
forging a global movement for poverty reduction
and biodiversity conservation
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Alvaro Umana, UNDP Environmentally Sustainable
Development Group
Sean Southey, Equator Initiative Manager
The Equator Initiative is wanting to lead the
way to a better understanding of how
conservation efforts can support wider work to
achieve sustainable human development.
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Seven Activities of the Equator Initiative

• Equator Prize
• Learning Exchanges
• Eco-entrepreneur mentoring
• People and Protected Areas (World Heritage
  Sites)
• Making the community to policy connection
• Public Awareness Campaign
• Research and Learning

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Entrepreneurship and the 2002 Equator Prize
Finalists
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The Equator Initiative Prize
the biennial Equator Prize is awarded to
recognize outstanding communities from developing
countries in the tropics that demonstrate in
practical terms how efforts to conserve
biodiversity can also reduce poverty

• For the 2002 Equator Prize
• received 420 nominations from 77 countries
• selected 27 as finalists
• awarded 7 with the Equator Prize and 30,000 US
  at the World Summit on Sustainable Development

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Comparative Case Study Research

• Columbia University
• Harvard University
• International Development Research Centre
• International Institute for Environment and
  Development
• Washington University
• University of Manitoba
• York University

Indicators of poverty reduction /
conservation Community organization Cross-scale
linkages
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Analytical Framework
We propose that the effectiveness of local
partnership in advancing sustainable development
can be analyzed through focusing on
entrepreneurship

• builds on development literature, social and
  civic entrepreneurship
• expand beyond eco-entrepreneurship activity in
  Equator Initiative
• enables an analysis of the evolution of an
  innovation over time

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Evolution of an Innovation Over Time
an effective local partnership

• is initiated and guided by an entrepreneur or
  entrepreneurial team
• develops institutional capacity to adaptively
  manage and learn to address problems
• increases its capacity to learn over time
  through creating learning processes and
  structures
• expands its influence over time to contribute to
  increased capacity of larger social systems to
  respond to complex sustainable development
  problems

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Entrepreneur

• Characteristics of the Entrepreneur
• Willingness to learn
• Innovative / Imaginative
• Systems thinker
• Works with difference
• Capacity to synthesize
• Communicator
• Entrepreneurial Activity
• Creating value through innovation
• Gap filling and bricolage
• Risk-taking
• Takes the initiative
• Knowledge and Action are intertwined

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Innovation and the Learning Process

• Adaptive Management
• establish institutions partnerships
• mobilize people and resources
• creating learning structure process

• Learning Process (Korten, 1980)
• Learning to be effective
• Learning to be efficient
• Learning to expand

• Social Learning
• sustainability and transferability
• scaling up, scaling out
• societal transformation

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as society is grappling with how to implement
the global sustainable development agenda local
partnerships provide critical information into
this social learning process
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The Equator Initiative as Incubator

• nurturing and facilitating entrepreneurship by
• searching for entrepreneurs and latent civic
  will
• serving as networks of support
• providing seed funding, training, technology,
  advice
• facilitating the creation of networks of
  entrepreneurs
• providing public relations and cross-scale
  linkages

the equivalent of civic venture capitalists for
high-risk and potentially high-reward areas
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Next Steps
Develop the analytical framework based on further
research and feedback - CBD COP 7 Malaysia -
February 2004 Generate the final version of the
research questions Send research questions and
draft case study reports to 2002 Equator Prize
Finalists Select five cases for further analysis
and telephone interviews Draft analytical and
case study chapters for review
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Thank you ?
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(No Transcript)
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Cases the 27 Finalists for the 2002 Equator
Prize

• LATIN AMERICA AND CARIBBEAN
• Toledo Institute for Development and Environment
  (TIDE) - Belize
• Associação Vida Verde da Amazônia (AVIVE) -
  Brazil
• Bolsa Amazonia - Brazil
• Cananéia Oyster Producers Cooperative - Brazil
• Couro Vegetal da Amazônia Project - Brazil
• Inter-institutional Consortium for Sustainable
  Agriculture on Hillsides / River Cabuyal
  Watershed Users Association (CIPASLA -
  ASOBESURCA) - Colombia
• Empresa Forestal Integral de Bayamo - Cuba
• Organización Manejo Y Conservación, S. C. /
  WCS-Guatemala - Guatemala
• Café de la Selva - Mexico
• Programa de Campesino a Campesino, Siuna (PCaC) -
  Nicaragua
• Ese'eja Native Community of Infierno - Peru
• WORLD HERITAGE SITES
• Iniciativa Talamanca - Costa Rica
• Asociación de Comunidades Forestales de Petén
  (ACOFOP) - Guatemala
• Mosquitia Pawisa Agency for the Development of
  the Honduran Mosquitia (MOPAWI ) - Honduras

• AFRICA
• Support Group for Conservation and
  SustainableDevelopment Initiatives (CACID) -
  Cameroon
• Mohéli Marine Park - Comores
• Honey Care Africa Ltd. - Kenya
• Il Ngwesi Group Ranch - Kenya
• Association of Manambolo Natives (FITEMA) -
  Madagascar
• HASHI Soil Conservation Project - Tanzania
• Suledo Forest Community - Tanzania
• ASIA AND PACIFIC
• Fiji Locally-Managed Marine Area Network - Fiji
• Medicinal Plants Conservation Centre - India
• Kerala Kani Samudaya Kshema Trust - India
• Tribal Communities of the Jeypore Tract of Orissa
  - India
• Uma Bawang Resident's Association (UBRA) -
  Malaysia
• CBIRD Center, Sub Tai - Thailand

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FITEMA (Madagascar)
DINA traditional land use
flexible enough for a new era
Elders Benevolent guardians
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Kerala Kani Trust (India)
Dr. Pushpangadan and the Kani
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Parc Marin de Moheli (Comoros)
marine biodiversity area
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M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation (India)
8 tribal communities
MSSRF (boundary organization)
Government policy
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Honey Care Africa (Kenya)
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Uma Bawang Residents Assoc. (Malaysia)
GIS mapping Traditional knowledge
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Couro Vegetal da Amazonia (Brazil)
Local community partnership with 200 indigenous
and rubber tapper families Nawa Institute