A Happy New Year of the Social Entrepreneurs

During those last days at the end of the year Klaus and I just stayed at home enjoying the quietness of Geneva when everybody had left for the mountains or to some far distant beaches. It was a great time to reflect and of course the end of the year always invites you to look back. If there is one thing that provides me with great satisfaction it is the fact that social entrepreneurship has become so much mainstream and even a true gene of our society. Social Entrepreneurs are not only seen to be indispensable drivers of social innovation but they provide an ethical benchmark in times when we still suffer from the greed and exuberance and excesses of those who had only the accumulation of material wealth in their minds without even having to face the consequences of their irresponsible risk-taking.

Even if we can be a little bit more optimistic in 2011 about the economic outlook and seem to have overcome the immediate effects of the crisis, there is a lesson to be drawn in my opinion: the world will only be in harmony if we can establish fundamental values shared by every citizen on this earth – whatever his origins or his status. The United Nations is built on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which is as relevant today as it was more than 60 years ago. What we should add is a fundamental obligation of each individual to serve society as a whole, take care of the integrity of our biosphere and not doing harm to future generations.

Social Entrepreneurs  are for me the role modes for citizenship in the 21st century. They do not only take care of society and the environment but they put all their imagination and their courage into concrete actions in all fields in order to address the present challenges and improve peoples lives in a concrete way.

I wish you all a healthy and happy New Year!
Hilde Schwab

Editor's note
Hilde Schwab, President and Co-Founder, Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship, @hildeschwab