White Paper: How Hybrid Ventures Impact SDGs

In 1990, an estimated 1 billion people lived in poverty in developing countries, with most living on $370 per year. However, concerted efforts since 1990 have been productive, with a 36% decrease in the world's population living in extreme poverty to 10%. Despite this progress, the poverty reduction rate declined from 2013 to 2015. The United Nations (UN) initiated the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in 2000 to address poverty, hunger, diseases, illiteracy, environmental degradation, and discrimination against women. Eight MDGs were developed and adopted to focus on reduced poverty, improved health, enhanced human rights, and a protected environment. The MDGs were considered the single most successful anti-poverty movement in human history, lifting more than 1 billion people out of extreme poverty and making inroads against hunger and illiteracy. However, critics argued that the success of the MDGs was unevenly distributed, with poverty persisting in Africa while other previously poverty-stricken regions like Asia reported significant progress. By 2015, most UN member states had not achieved their MDGs target, prompting the UN to initiate the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in 2015. The SDGs have 17 goals and 169 associated targets, directly targeting the root causes of poverty and systemic inequalities. The SDGs have a 15-year plan to curb poverty by leveraging deliberate action, requiring collective inputs and actions from all individuals, groups, and institutions. The achievement of the SDGs is impossible for an individual government to achieve without an intense, grassroots effort by multiple stakeholders. The SDGs belong to everyone and must be owned by everyone, leading to a catalytic surge of individuals and small businesses who have a tangible guidepost for their entrepreneurial ventures. The United National Development Fund (UNDP) has developed four dedicated workstreams to help countries develop integrated solutions to address the gaps between the goals. The Innovation and Learning workstream seeks to identify and build new ways of achieving development through collective intelligence and experimentation. One of the initiatives under this workstream is the Accelerator Labs, which are initiatives of the SDGs drawn to entrepreneurs, specifically social enterprises. Currently, there are 60 Accelerator Labs in 78 countries, supporting and driving innovative solutions to achieve the ultimate goal of eradicating poverty. Geoff Mulgan, a former CEO of Nesta and currently a Professor at UCL, apprised that there is little chance of achieving the SDGs without accelerated innovation. As part of the Innovation and Learning workstream, the UNDP has also established an additional resource that is a draw for social entrepreneurs – the Innovation Facility. The UNDP Innovation Facility is a global mechanism that provides technical support and funding to test frontier technologies and new approaches to deliver better results. The 2019 Progress Report on SDGs by the UN revealed progress in areas such as extreme poverty reduction, widespread immunization, decrease in child mortality rates, and increase in people's access to electricity. However, some critical gaps included slow progress with climate change, rising sea levels, and alarming deterioration of the natural environment; global hunger on the rise; and women, children, and the disabled continued to face discrimination and disadvantages. In 2019, Ghana was ranked 102 out of 162 based on progress towards attaining the SDGs with a global index score of 63.8%, 18.6% higher than the average African region scores. According to the 2019 Ghana SDGs Progress Report, Ghana was struggling to achieve 11 out of the 17 SDGs, with the country needing urgent measures to address the pervasive issues of poverty and inequalities. The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the extreme levels of inequalities and social problems across the globe, highlighting the need for novel and urgent methods to address developmental issues. Social ventures or hybrid business models are needed to accelerate and support developmental issues on a global scale. The business community has traditionally been structured around two distinct organizations – for-profit and nonprofit. However, a spectrum of organizations has evolved, with many for-profit organizations introducing social good into their strategic agenda as Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). CSR programs have had an impact on addressing social challenges in many countries and communities. However, they were not well prioritized, supported, tracked, and managed in a manner that demonstrated their efficacy and actual measurable impact. Customers are increasingly mature and savvy, expecting that the companies they invest in or give their money to for the exchange of goods and services are taking an active interest in the societies they operate in. As such, over time, some companies have evolved into social enterprises, which are organizations that combine social and environmental goals with commercial objectives. Social enterprises have the potential to accelerate and support developmental issues on a global scale, making them a crucial component in achieving the SDGs.