A Unique Opportunity

By Juergen Griesbeck, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Streetfootballworld, Germany;
Regional Social Entrepreneur of the Year, Europe, 2011

About Streetfootballworld: millions of young people around the world are born into a cycle of social injustice with little opportunity to break out. Through the love of football, streetfootballworld brings individuals and organizations together behind a common goal: empowering young people to rise above their circumstances. The streetfootballworld network unites over 80 organizations that use football to tackle social challenges like HIV/AIDS and homelessness. In 2010 alone they helped over 400,000 young people around the world harness their passion for the game to overcome local challenges.

 

It is really an exciting moment to join the Schwab Foundation community of social entrepreneurs and to be a part of this space, both to share our experiences and to add value to the broader ecosystem for social change. The World Economic Forum offers a unique opportunity to gather the right people around a common purpose and to really DO it. The social challenges have been increasing in size despite the fact of increasing budgets for International Cooperation and volume of donations. At the same time there are sustainable and scalable solutions to face the above mentioned social challenges without proper investment and social investors who are struggling to find enough investment opportunities for their growing appetite to move seriously into this space.

My hope is to contribute to the discussion of how to bridge the gaps in order to create significant public benefit with efficient use of resources, and strengthen the understanding that the bottom-line of this joint effort shall be sustainable social and environmental impact. Once we have an agreement on this, we can think about the appropriate financial instruments to make it happen. Or, translating it into football: we need a real team effort and all team members have to perform best on their respective position. Together we can take on the pressing challenges of our times.

At the early days of streetfootballworld a young boy in Colombia told me: "the day we take peace as seriously as a football match, we will achieve it."

Juergen Griesbeck