The Relevance of the NGO for Social Entrepreneurs

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Vladimir Delagneau, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Nicaragua based clean energy company Tecnosolucion, has written a blog post on the World Economic Forum’s website about the importance of NGOs in actualizing (social) business ideas in rural areas.

Delagneau, who has been named 2010’s Regional Social Entrepreneur of the Year in Latin America, emphasizes how NGOs can essentially broker alliances with local third parties who might otherwise be reluctant to adopt a new technology, regardless of how tried and tested this may be in other regions. 

“Often, when one embarks on an entrepreneurial endeavour, one thinks about the market opportunity (meeting the needs of a certain group of people) in constructing a business model that is functional and operational, while taking into account the financing needs of the business. However, in rural business activities, the alliances (that businesses form) with third parties are vitally important,” he writes. 

To me, Delagneau’s post embodies a crucial idea: partnerships between outsider companies and indigenous communities or businesses, established with the help of a credible, local body are an effective way to scale a social enterprise, while simultaneously staying both relevant and accountable to the needs of the community one is penetrating. An NGO, that might not have the funds or know how to conceive of and incubate technological solutions on its own could be an invaluable partner in actualizing a social enterprise, particularly one that involves outsider technology and ideas.