World Economic Forum: A View from the Ground

By Tony Meloto

(Reflections after speaking at the plenary session of the World Economic Forum in Jakarta last June 13 with Jeffrey Sachs and other global leaders).

To patriots and friends,

Thanks for your prayers. The plenary session went well. It is gratifying to see that the collective sacrifice of thousands of everyday heroes of Gawad Kalinga is catching the attention of world leaders.

*CNN, through their international correspondent Andrew Stevens who moderated the session, proposed to do a documentary on our ground up development template.

*The head of ADB hopes to revisit GK now that we are doing social entrepreneurship.

*Jeff Sachs wants to do a big forum with us in Manila.

*The Vice President of indonesia said he will support GK in his country.

Earlier at 730 am I attended a finance and investment forum with Secretary Purisima and with CEOs of the top banks and investment houses. I was the only social entrepreneur in the high level crowd but it made me proud to be there because I was with our competent and well respected Secretary of Finance. Secretary Cesar mentioned about the creation of the National Entrepreneurship Council through a Presidential Executive Order to raise half a million social entrepreneurs and acknowledged the importance of the private sector like GK in making it happen. The investors were excited about the proposition to build a new generation of wealth creators in our country.

They pointed out that the Philippines, like Indonesia, is now attractive to investors because of the new leadership but they suggested that we should cater to the domestic market rather than build an export driven economy. I couldn’t agree more.

It was amazing for me to witness how our simple faith in action and affection for those at the bottom of the pyramid could capture the attention of global policy makers and wealth generators at the World Economic Forum.

*The GK Center for Social Innovation is a hybrid of philanthropy and social business to achieve impact, scale and sustainability.

*Social business for us is not confined to micro- enterprises but especially those that can scale and mainstream like commercial business and include the micro in their supply chain. Our middle brother concept as the missing link in business development is new and interesting to a lot of people here. Like us, many do not believe in teaching old business models that are not relevant and responsive to the urgent social needs of the world.

*Social business is about optimum profit – not maximum profit – for greater social impact and benefit.

*Social business will need the brightest and the best from the top business and management schools as wealth creators at home and not job seekers abroad, flying Filipino brands, using local materials, making the land productive while protecting the environment and harnessing the creativity and genius of a gifted people.

*To do this we need to develop our SQ -social quotient – not just our IQ and EQ. The brightest and the best should not leave the least behind but invest their time, talent and treasure to make the least the best; turn our human liabilities to assets though caring and sharing where there is optimum profit for all.

*Big business will migrate CSR- corporate social responsibility to CSI – corporate social investment. Investing in bringing people out of poverty through social entrepreneurship will expand the market base and make good business sense.
I mentioned Shell particularly as one of our biggest corporate social investors in building our Center for Social Innovation to raise more social entrepreneurs.

*There is a huge social venture capital fund but not enough viable social businesses like Human Nature and enough social entrepreneurs to invest in.

If anything, the entire WEF is validating our development strategy and build philosophy.
At the end of the day, the bottom line is how we value our humanity as an expression of our faith in God who became human to help us discover what is divine in us and for all of us together to appreciate the gift of this rich and beautiful planet.

I just retired to my room at the Shangrila to remove my shoes. I miss my wife and my bed at home and the simple life at the GK Enchanted Farm in Bulacan.