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"A good start" on a world where all children are educated, pandemics are history and weapons are only in antique shops
Jeff Skoll, the founder of the Skoll World Forum on Social Entrepreneurship, spelled out his top ten highlights in the decade-long history of the event.
His No 10 spot was about how technology and social purpose drive each other. He told the audience at the 2013 event, in Oxford, England, that a rapid increase in mobile phone ownership has had major implications for society and social change.
No 9: He thanked Britain, Canada and the United States in particular for strong central government commitment to scaling up social innovation.
No 8 and 7: Microcredit movement founder Muhammad Yunus and Grameen Bank winning the Nobel Prize in 2006, followed by former U.S. Vice President Al Gore and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change winning the Nobel Prize in 2007.
No 6: Declining deforestation rates. Brazil, which was responsible for a third of the world’s carbon emissions, has reduced these by 2 billion tonnes of carbon – the single greatest reduction in carbon emissions, Skoll said.
No 5: Billions of people have gained access to clean water. The 2015 goal to halve the number of people without access to safe drinking water had been met in 2010, five years ahead of schedule.
No 4: Social enterprise “goes mainstream”. Some 40 million people have careers in and 200 million volunteers work in social entrepreneurship worldwide. Contrast this to 10 years ago when members of the social entrepreneur movement were the “rogue disruptors”, Skoll said.
No 3: A shifting of markets towards sustainability. Profitability and sustainability could happen without sacrificing humanity.
No 2: “Significant progress” has been made against significant killer diseases – eight million lives had been saved from HIV and AIDS, the guinea worm is set to follow smallpox as the next disease to be completely eradicated, and polio is in line to disappear after that.
No 1: Fewer people are living in poverty than ever before. For the first time since poverty rates have been monitored, rates are falling in every region, bringing the possibility tantalizingly close that we could bring extreme poverty to virtually zero in just one generation.
Skoll asked the audience of social entrepreneurs, impact investors and supporters to imagine a world where every child received a basic education, pandemics appeared in the history books and weapons were sold only in antique shops.
Ambitious, he said – but possible. “We call it a good start.”
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