Boosting Social Enterprise Development
Good Practice Compendium
Social enterprises are long-standing agents of inclusive growth and democratisation of the economic and social spheres, and they have proved resilient to economic adversity all the while addressing socio-economic challenges in innovative ways, re-integrating people back to the labour market, and contributing to overall social cohesion. This compendium derives policy lessons for boosting social enterprises from the analysis of 20 initiatives in several EU member-countries, covering a range of policy areas from legal frameworks, finance, market access, and support structures, to education and skills.
SAW-B: A training and advisory services federation, Belgium (Wallonia-Brussels)
SAW-B is a federation of social economy actors, as well as a research and training centre, offering integrated support to social enterprises and shaping, through lobbying activities, an institutional landscape favourable to their development. This chapter presents the organisation’s objectives, rationale and main activities, along with the impact achieved and the challenges faced. It concludes with the lessons learnt and conditions for transferring this initiative to other contexts.