The designation of "social entrepreneur" has gained popularity in recent years. Journalists, philanthropists, human rights activists and development workers frequently employ the term. America's leading universities offer courses on this subject. Put simply, social entrepreneurs are people with new bold ideas to address major problems in the community.

Who are the social entrepreneurs?
According to the management expert, Peter Drucker, the term "entrepreneur" ( from the French, meaning "one who takes into hand") was introduced 200 years ago by the French economist Jean- Baptiste Say. To him, an entrepreneur is someone who shifts "economic resources out of an area of lower and into an area of higher productivity". Some say social entrepreneurs have existed throughout ages. According to David Bronstein who specialises in writing about social innovations ( he wrote a book on Grameen Bank), St. Francis of Assisi (1181-1226) would qualify as a social entrepreneur, having built multiple organisations that initiated changes in religious community of his time.

At present the word "social entrepreneur" has been ascribed to individuals who are self-initiators, innovative thinkers and successful doers. They usually go beyond the traditional mode of things. They invent. They create. They build. They uplift the lives and improve the quality of living of the disadvantaged or poorer segment of society. They employ social, economic or ecological interventions to pursue their altruistic objectives.

Examples of social change through powerful ideas
Every change begins with a vision and a decision to take action. Often it has been found that an important social change begins with a single entrepreneurial author. Consider these examples. In Sri Lanka, the Sarvodaya Movement began in 1958 when a teacher led a group of high school students to rural areas to experience the true state of affairs of poor people. Later they found ways of building a more just and happy life for them and over the years the movement has improved the lives of hundreds of thousands of poor people in Sri Lanka through self-help endeavours.

In South Africa, one woman, Veronica Khosa, developed a home-based care model for AIDS patients that changed government health policy. In Brazil, Fabio Rosa helped bring electricity to hundreds and thousands of remote rural residents. Ibina Rios of Peru created a loan fund to help residents develop small but profitable recycling and garbage processing business. Residents pay a small fee for clean streets.

An American, Bill Drayton, a graduate of Yale Law School, created a pioneering foundation, Ashoka, Innovators for the Public that has funded and supported social entrepreneurs in Asia ( including Bangladesh), Africa, Latin and Central Americas. To Drayton "social entrepreneurs are not content just to give a fish or to teach how to fish. They will not rest until they have revolutionised the fishing industry."

Examples in Bangladesh
Two Bangladeshi organisations which are internationally known and have swept across with their branches in the country are Grameen Bank and BRAC (Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee). Dr. Yunus has demonstrated through Grameen Bank's microcredit programme that poor people are credit worthy and productive. Microcredit has changed lives of millions of poor women in Bangladesh.

Fazle Hasan Abed founded in 1972 a non-governmental organisation, BRAC, to initially handle rehabilitation programme of displaced persons who were victims of brutal war in 1971 in Bangladesh. BRAC is now the largest non-governmental organisation in the world, having a large number of development programmes that cover the areas of non-formal primary education, primary health, maternity heath care and income generation activities. These two organisations have become models for other developing countries.

In addition, there is a history of social entrepreneurs in the country, for example in the past, there were some truly great female social entrepreneurs such as Nawab Faizunnessa and Rokeya Shakawat Hossain who pioneered spread of female education, when very few people thought that female education was a right and a necessity.

These extraordinary stories highlight a massive transformation in the community around the world by imaginative ideas and actions undertaken by some visionary social entrepreneurs.

Community or non-governmental organisations
Social entrepreneurs have set up hundreds and thousands of community or non-government organisations (NGOs) mostly in developing countries in various social sectors with a view to promoting poor people in better livelihood activities without degrading of environment. Twenty years ago, for example it has been reported that Indonesia had only one independent environmental organisation. Today it has more than 2,000.

In Bangladesh most of the country developmental work is handled by about 20,000 non-governmental organizations -- almost all of them were established during the last 25 years. In India well over a million grassroots organisations exist. Slovakia in Eastern Europe has more than 12,000. In Brazil in the 1990s the number of registered grassroots organisations jumped from 250,000 to 400,000, a 60 per cent increase.

Prevailing gross inequality among people
In today's world, the rich are getting richer and the poorest poorer. In 2002 Earth Summit II was held in Johannesburg (South Africa) and the UN came up with grim statistics that demonstrated extreme inequality among people of the world. Some of the statistics were as follows:

* About 1.2 billion people live on less than $ 1.85 a day
* 800 million people do not get enough food to lead normal lives
* 1 billion people lack access to clean water
* 2.4 billion have no proper sanitation

On the other hand, 200 richest people (64 new billionaires have been added to its billionaires' list in 2003, --headed once again by Bill Gates) doubled their income in past six years to US$ more than 1,000 billion; the richest people have more assets than the total assets of the poorest 600 million. Richest one-fifth of nations get 86 per cent of world's income while poorest one-fifth of nations get 1 per cent of world's income.

Income inequality exists not only between rich and poor countries but also within developing countries. For example, in Bangladesh, the richest 10 per cent of the population controls 40.72 per cent of national income while the poorest 10 per cent of the population has access to only 1.84 per cent of national income (Bangladesh Economic Survey, 2003). Gross inequality between urban and rural people also exists in other developing countries including China and India.

What is driving social entrepreneurs?
Human beings are instinctively herd animals. They are by nature social and practical doers. The first stage in social change is internal, the mental shake up and rethinking of an individual. Furthermore values are integral to the human sciences. Human beings act according to certain standards of truth and of right and wrong, whether or not they are conscious of them as "values".

Peter Goldmark, who was the President of Rockefeller Foundation (1988-97), was asked about this new phenomenon in the community. In reply he said : " You have restless people seeking to deal with problems that were not being successfully coped with by existing institutions. They escaped the old formats and were driven to invent new forms of organisations. They found more freedom, more effectiveness and more productive engagement."

Many social thinkers believe that altruistic motives prompt a social entrepreneur to think of innovative ideas to assist poor people. Altruistic attitude implies spirit of benevolence, compassion and empathy. They operate in the realm of the heart and mind. Heart which feels for the people and the mind which thinks for and with the people.

A compelling reason is that some people recognise that social ills cannot be solved either with outdated conceptual models or with old pattern of planning. New approaches are urgently needed to solve problems. What sets social entrepreneurs apart is that they have taken action to do something about it, namely, devise a solution for the need and follow through to make that solution to others. Their activities are not specialised activities but are based in the activities of everyday life at their best.

Another major change is that electronic media has made global inequalities far more visible than ever before. Many people or governments in rich countries ponder the fact how can 1.2 billion people in the world living on less than US$ 1.85 a day be helped to improve their quality of life without simultaneously degrading the environment? They have come forward to provide funds in poverty alleviation and environmental projects in developing countries. In addition, technology permits people, money and information to move quickly and cheaply around the globe

Social entrepreneurs are not easily daunted when contemplating social problems and they have the ability to see problems that grow slowly and affect society through their cumulative effect on individuals. This brings to mind what Indian human rights activist and film actor Sabana Azmi said of communal riots in Gujarat in March 2003: "What you saw in Gujarat and the recent alarming trend of the rise of Hindu nationalism did not happen overnight. It has been a gradual process that took eight years to take this shape. To counter that I think we need to network ourselves better and build more bridges with like minded people".

Global network
Social entrepreneurs link up across the globe to exchange ideas as to how to alleviate sufferings of poor people. What unites them is their role as social innovators. They have powerful ideas to improve people's lives and they have implemented them in their own countries. The World Social Forum that met in Mumbai January 16-21 afforded an opportunity for exchange of their experiences among social entrepreneurs. Even the founder of the World Economic Forum, Klaus Schwab, created his own foundation to cater to social entrepreneurs and invited several of them to the 2004 Forum in Davos (Switzerland).

Conclusion
Social entrepreneurs invest their time, energy and often their wealth and they give it year after year (many say they even give away their sleep). They are selfless breed of people who dedicate their lives to create happiness and well being for others. Although social entrepreneurs have constructively contributed to society, yet they often are misunderstood and under-appreciated. In some cases they are subject to unhelpful criticism and even to vilification.

No organisation including government agency is perfect. It must be admitted that social entrepreneurs' good and highly commendable work in areas that were not touched before far outweighs any of their alleged lapses. It is time that their valuable contribution to society by implementing their powerful ideas is publicly admired and fully recognised. After all, what business entrepreneurs are to the economy, social entrepreneurs are to social change.

Barrister Harun ur Rashid is a former Bangladesh Ambassador to the UN, Geneva.