A growing number of entrepreneurs use market-based solutions to solve critical social problems. These entrepreneurs create jobs for local economies, make connections to regional and global markets, and increase access to critical goods and services for underserved communities. However, these entrepreneurs face several barriers preventing them to achieve impact at scale and full financial success.

Given their experience and pioneering initiatives to build the social enterprise sector in CEE, a small group of key stakeholders - EVPA, NESsT, Yunus Social Business Initiative, and the European Commission decided to join efforts and work together to solve these critical issues in the region. The idea was to form and lead a region-wide Task Force of key players that would work together in the next five years to build a social investment movement to foster more of an appropriate capital for social enterprises, while also preparing more and higher impact social enterprises to receive these investments.

Ambitions of the initiative:

• To develop the ecosystem for social investment in Central and Eastern Europe;
• To attract more and better adapted resources for early-stage social enterprises;
• To showcase social investment examples from Central and Eastern Europe;
• To position CEE in the global movement to develop and grow the social impact investing sector.

Expected outcomes 2017 - 2018:

• To bring more funding for early stage social investments to the region - the “missing middle”, i.e. early-stage, affordable patient capital of between 50 000 - 250,000 EUR;
• Developing a pipeline of investment ready social enterprises;
• Increase the number of actors involved in social investing in CEE;
• Increase knowledge and awareness about the social investing space in CEE.

Working groups

Should you be interested in learning more about the activities of Working Groups (WG), please connect the WG leader through our Facebook page.

A. Transactions

Outcome: increase number of investments/pipeline of investment-ready social businesses

Participants:

• Shkelzen Marku, Yunus Social Business – Leader 
• Roxana Damaschin-Tecu - NESsT
• Johann Heep, ERSTE
• Jovan Madjovski, CEED Macedonia
• Michał Radziwiłł, TISE
• Dario Vins, Mozaik.

B. Ecosystem

Outcome: Developed ecosystem for social investment and positioning of CEE in the global context

Participants:

• Peter Ptashko, GSEN - Leader
• Ewa Konczal, EVPA 
• Bistra Kumbaroska, Impact HUB Vienna
• Hermes Arriaga, Impact HUB Croatia
• Nicole Etchart, NESsT
• Irina Asaftei, NESsT Romania
• Georgia Eframova, European Commission
• Maria Baracsi, IFKA.

C. Policy

Outcome: Best practices sharing and recommendations for developing conducive policy frameworks for development of social investment space.

This group is in the process of development. For more details please contact Ewa Konczal, EVPA.

D. Communication

Outcome: Increased awareness and understanding of the social investment space in CEE

Participants:

• Ewa Konczal, EVPA – Leader
• Ioana Traista, EVPA
• Darko Sokovic, Dokukino/Propulsion Fund, Serbia
• Hermes Arriaga, Impact HUB Croatia
• Maria Baracsi, IFKA
• Johann Heep, ERSTE.

Governance Structure

During the first meeting of the CEE Taskforce, on 27 -28 March 2017 the participants agreed on the Governance Structure of the Taskforce. The Governance of the CEE Taskforce encompasses the following elements:

• Co-leaders of the CEE TF: Ewa Konczal, EVPA and Roxana Damaschin-Tecu, NESsT
• Secretariat (the actual operational body):
• The CEE Taskforce – see the list of the members below.
• The Consultation Group – embraces stakeholders, companies and organizations that are interested in the topic of social investment, active already or plan to engage in CEE. This is a broad audience of the VP/SI sector.

Resources

• CEE SI Taskforce - short description;
• Meeting in Warsaw, Poland, March 2017;
• Meeting in Vienna, Austria, June 2017;
• Meeting in Skopje, Macedonia, October 2017.

Members of CEE Social Investment Taskforce:

Ewa Konczal, EVPA, Poland; Roxana Damaschin-Tecu, NESsT, Romania; Georgia Efremova, European Commission;  Michał Radziwiłł, TISE, Polan; Johann Heep; Mirjana Sakic, ERSTE Group Bank - Social Banking, Austria/CEE; Paweł Łukasiak, Academy for Philanthropy Development, Poland; Nicole Erchart, NESsT; Maria Baracsi, IFKA, Hungary; Elitsa Barakova, Bcause, Bulgaria; Jovan Madjovski, CEED Macedonia; Bistra Kumbaroska, Impact HUB Vienna, Austria; Hermes Arriaga, Impact HUB Zagreb, Croatia; Darko Sokovic, Propulsion Fund/Dokukino Foundation, Serbia; Agnieszka Orzechowska, NESsT, Poland; Dario Vins, Mozaik, Bosnia & Herzegovina; Marku Shkelzen, Yunus Social Business, Albania.