British Council’s Policy Dialogue on Social Enterprise, a two day long conference packed with keynotes, talks, panels, and mind-blowing conversations, is here again for the second time. The conference, scheduled on Wednesday 24th and Thursday 25th February 2016, will take place at the British Council, 5 Fuller Road, Dhaka.
The first Policy dialogue, held last year focusing on the policy support for Social Enterprise having Bangladesh in the centre of the discussions, created huge enthusiasm and interest among the delegates and was a hit.
This year it is going to be even bigger and better.
This year’s Policy Dialogue, themed 'Social Enterprise: Impact and Opportunities', will bring together 100 policy experts and social entrepreneurs and impact investors, investment intermediaries and practitioners from Thailand, Myanmar, Malaysia, India, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and the UK, including from organizations such as Social Enterprise UK, Brac and World Bank.
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Bangladesh Takes The Centre
Bangladesh is known as the breeding-ground for social enterprises like BRAC and Grameen to the world. Social Enterprise has been in practice in Bangladesh through the efforts of both of these organizations who have long-standing innovations in the market. As a result of the widespread success of BRAC and Grameen, there is a general awareness about social enterprise and social entrepreneurship.
Building on that, today there is a small but vibrant social enterprise movement taking shape in Dhaka and a relatively large amount of social enterprise activity across the country.
Bangladesh is set to become a middle income country by 2021, which means that there is a growth in entrepreneurial activity. However, there needs to be more engagement from the Government in order to mature the ecosystem and there needs to be specific policy frameworks or legal form for social enterprise in Bangladesh so that social entrepreneurs can have easy access to judicial advice, intellectual property protection, and bankruptcy laws as well as access to finance and other relevant ingredients in the ecosystem.
There is a growing evidence that Bangladesh has a potential to overcome social barriers and propel growth as a nation by developing social enterprises in sectors such as agriculture, health, energy, education and technology in Bangladesh.
The event aims to tap into that and focus on what are the impact and opportunities that Social Enterprise sector can offer gathering experience from other countries and develop a comprehensive set of policy recommendations for the government to support the sector’s rapid growth.
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Why You Should Care
Policy dialogue is here to make you think and act and build. Last year’s delegates reported it to be inspiring, thought-provoking, and an extraordinary learning curve in the space of social entrepreneurship and social enterprise.
While the event promises to provide a decent supply of food for thoughts, it also offers a brilliant opportunity to meet and network with senior policy influencers, entrepreneurs and thought leaders from across South and East Asia and the UK.
This year, the invite only conference will host 8 sessions on Health, Agriculture, Creative Industry, Technology, Impact Measurement and Communication participated by national and international experts on Social Enterprise, entrepreneurs, investors, thought leaders and change makers.
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Interested and want to attend? Apply for an invitation
The Policy Dialogue is an invite only event. It means, to attend this two day long gala of thoughts, inspiration and conversation you have to get an invitation from British Council, Bangladesh.
For an invitation, please apply here.
