 I would like to give the floor now or to introduce first story Alvaro Rodriguesa Rigo, Founder and Managing Director of IGNIA of Mexico. Also we have representatives from Brazil, Eduardo Enrique Acholi Campos, Governor of Fernambuco, the Minister of Development and Social Inclusion of Peru, Michelle Lies from Switzerland. And I would like to start by asking a favor from you, maybe you will find this funny, but I would like you to help me. Trust me, I am going to ask the people who wear glasses to take them off for a minute. Just one second please, do it all of you and of course things are different. Maybe you would be able to read or not, would you be able to go back to your room in the hotel without your glasses? So now you can put your glasses on again and I would ask you to look at Jordan, because Jordan has found the way of taking care of a group of people who need glasses, but they have done it at affordable prices. This is a product that we consider a given such as water and however glasses can make a big difference for a large number of people. Jordan is an entrepreneur and he is bringing market solutions to a group of people and we asked him to describe to Aurelian what he does and a social entrepreneur which have been the obstacles and the factors that have allowed him to reach El Salvador now. Thank you, Gabriela. It's a pleasure to address this esteemed audience and tell you a little bit about Vision Spring and the work that we do. Vision Spring works to provide affordable access to eyewear everywhere. It started in rural Mexico about 20 years ago. I founded the organization through an experience of meeting a seven-year-old boy. He was a seven-year-old boy from the school for the blind and in his life he thought he was blind, his parents thought he was blind, his whole community thought he was blind and when we took a look at him we recognized in fact that he wasn't blind but he just required an extremely strong pair of eyeglasses. I was a lucky person to put those glasses on that boy's face and at that moment both of our lives were transformed. He turned from a blind child to a sighted child and me for the first time in my life I really understood that my life had purpose and that I could make a fundamental and profound difference in other people's lives. Since that moment we've been working to spread that goodwill to many more people. After that moment I did some research and realized that there were 700 million people in the world who didn't have access to vision services or affordable glasses and that wasn't only affecting people as profoundly as this seven-year-old boy but there were hundreds of millions of people who were losing economic productivity. 45-year-old weavers, tailors, artisans, mechanics, barbers, people who earned their living with their eyes in their hands who could no longer work all because of a lack of a pair of glasses that I knew I could source in China for less than 50 cents and what a ridiculous state of affairs that was. School children who were falling out of school again not because of any lack of intelligence but just because they didn't have access to glasses. So we saw these issues and these problems and we set out to try to create solutions and we felt that solutions that were really essential were those that had economically viable business models behind them that there wasn't enough charity to support this kind of scale that needed to be enacted and so we set out to find economically viable business models that could scale through markets and through commercial markets. We've been working on it for 10 years, lots of challenges, the markets are deeply failed, the access is poor, the awareness of the issue is poor but we are proud to say that just this year in El Salvador we've identified a profitable and sustainable business model that are now, we're ripe for replication. I'll hold off there and I'll tell you more about it as the panel goes on but I want to get to our other panelists. ¿Cuáles fueron los obstáculos en ese caso? Which were the obstacles you found in the road up to the point where were the obstacles that you found in the road in that journey. Obstacles clearly, access to capital was a big obstacle. Not only access to capital but access to the right capital. It's very common for capital to be available to social entrepreneurs but it's often tied and so for instance we started in India and someone said well that's a wonderful program why don't you do that in Bangladesh rather than why don't you do that in India in the surrounding communities and scale. So a lot of times organizations that fund social entrepreneurs want to buy program but not necessarily build institutions so what's really essential for social enterprises is to have access to unrestricted capital just like in the capital markets a venture capitalist won't go to an entrepreneur and say I'll invest in your company, I believe in your business plan I believe in your team but you can only use my money to build the information technology infrastructure to your business. They give the entrepreneur the ability to spend the money how they see fit and what the highest purpose of that capital is so capital constraints is a big one access to the right type of capital in the right amount is a big one. Human capital is another huge obstacle it's very common particularly in the developing parts of the world that a person either has a business mindset or a non-profit mindset a social enterprise requires people who can think with their head and act with their heart and it's very hard to find that type of individual throughout many parts of the world and so human capital is a big constraint in finding or solving these problems. There's lots of other just technical challenges customs getting a product from China through a port in Bangladesh it took us 58 signatures from Bangladesh to Miami it took us nine months to get our first shipment in through Bangladesh and every country has a different customs infrastructure and regulations there's lots of regulations within countries there's some countries where you can't even buy reading glasses over the counter In America you can there's thousands of eye doctors but in many parts of Latin America you can't buy a ready-made reading glass and that locks out hundreds of thousands of millions of people from getting that simple essential product so regulations often get in the way I can go on but I think that's enough Yes Well Alvaro Very well Alvaro I think the call is for you to talk to us about the different levels of entrepreneurs and the different phases of development and also different ways or systems or forms of looking in this when we're talking about capital What do you say when you have to support someone like Jordan or Jordan who is truly representing a whole set of entrepreneurs here What do you say in response? Well yes Jordan is an example of a certain to a certain extent and the tower of people that we're experiencing in the social sector We have projects such as Vision Spring with a first-rate entrepreneur like Jordan who has tremendous experience in the business world and as he says with a tremendous heart but we're also hearing from him as well that it's hard, he's hard-pressed to find capital so therefore what's happening where's the disconnect where you can't find capital with the courage to invest in a project such as Jordan that of course has risks undoubtedly undoubtedly there are many question marks that have to be resolved but if they are resolved if they are overcome a project such as Jordan's becomes an example an example where many other entrepreneurs can say there's a great example he said there are 700,000 people who don't have access to quality eyeglasses 700 million people that's a huge, huge market why is there such a huge market and Jordan has the opportunity there and you're not getting it regulation, risk, perception of risk return in Latin America what has been your experience with that undoubtedly the option of potential for return is certainly there clearly the capital market nonetheless is not seeing that ROI it's perceived to be extremely high risk one unfortunate impact or side effect that we've had of the financial crisis of 2008-2009 is that we have had a movement toward a much less risk tolerant world which is a contradiction it's the opposite of what we need we need innovation we need new ways of doing things and for those innovations we need capital that has risk tolerance to but that's because all of the models are not proven yes that's true, of course but I mean the vast minority are proven but then what else are we doing here I mean why are we here if we want to have social innovation if we want to have truly new models to be able to resolve long-standing problems I mean obviously the long-standing models haven't worked so that is why we need to I mean taking risk doesn't mean being irresponsible it means that we need to in a responsible fashion we need to invest in projects that have a chance a small chance of changing the world it will be interesting to see whether people like you can serve to evangelize the investors that are a little bit old school in terms of their thinking we'll go back to the topic of capital and I ask whether the others have some other thoughts on this topic of capital as well let me share that minister Triveli and I traveled across parts of Peru to Capachica, Pono and of course Cusco to hear about the projects that the minister is creating and launching with a tremendous amount of impact and I was truly impressed by what you're doing here Madam Minister but also Carolina I would ask you to take a slightly different tack in our discussion here what can a government do what can any government do to help a social entrepreneur like Jordan I think that the role of government and the public sector in general in how we grapple and address social innovation is two tiered one is the promotional role if we have a problem of risk assessment or a clear assessment of a return on social investment I think then there's much that the government can do to make those risks visible and to share some of those risks in some cases particularly to jumpstart programs not for implementation but certainly to encourage this initial investment that a lot of social innovations require to be able to make that first leap forward there's also a possibility of human capital but also to make these projects more visible and make the environment more conducive for innovation but that's perhaps the most traditional role of government but not necessarily the most important one I believe that governments that states have tremendous potential for supporting social innovators with two things first of all as consumers state governments tend to be poor innovators the public sector is slow to adapt to new solutions and slow to innovate but we know very clearly what the problems are that we need to resolve particularly in the social arena and that is where the solutions that innovators come that's where they this needs to be an input for the public sector now that in turn requires innovation because a lot of the innovation particularly market innovations are conceived in the private environment and not within the scope of public policy but when a social innovation is adopted as part of a public policy it acquires a scale that makes things viable that in another context would not be viable so therefore as I think government as a consumer as a user of innovation to grapple with the social issues that we encounter every day is one of the opportunities for generating a much broader market for social innovators but also to ensure that they can have the necessary scale for rollout they can also encourage new innovators Marcelo Brazil is a worldwide recognized leader across the region when we're talking about social innovators and social innovation how do you see this relationship between government and social entrepreneur what have you learned about that relationship so far I think it's always a relationship where of mutual dependency in the sense that you perhaps you don't have the markets the market cannot find by itself the necessary return and when you're looking for social return you have to have some sort of mechanism social targets what I from before I went to the government Jatul Vargas Foundation we designed programs for the states and for the municipality at very low cost reaching millions of people using the infrastructure set by the state like Bolsa Familia so by like three months you could reach one million people at a very very low cost why the infrastructure was already there the challenge is how to allow the private sector to use this infrastructure because the state the municipalities in Brazil was real they could use that so I think there is really a great opportunity to give big jumps to reach the poorest of the poor because in all over Latin America you have conditional cash transfers you know where the poor are you know who they are you have their address you have a card you have everything you need to use a good idea you have to have of course a good idea a good business model but I think the infrastructure is there in a way that three, four, five years ago it was not then should we understand that I asked Carolina and Marcelo to pipe in on this should we understand therefore that governments are interested in having social entrepreneurs succeed is that a fact absolutely as I was saying in general governments I mean we are not good innovators and so therefore there is no better innovation than one that has been proven by the private sector and going back to what Marcelo has just said and if you remember we met a group of ladies in Costco who had received funding through conditioned monetary transfers cash transfers and they had subsequently then found themselves in the innovative market and they found a series of institutions that have designed procedures institutions so that they can then move into the private sector as economic players and work with them in terms of having credit and access to loans so using the public sector to provide a certain economy of scale to these individuals is vital is vital it doesn't mean that they are going to rise out of poverty but it does give them tools which is competitive and allows them to take it place and generate a market generated response in terms of the products that are needed and demanded by a certain population on the topic of whether governments are interested in their the presence of social innovators I think that is an interesting question that we need to look at a little more closely if I am sitting in office and I look at Jordan's project I have two choices I can say yes there is a need why don't we go out and donate and just give away eyeglasses what is going to happen I'll probably get a whole lot more votes I'll probably get a whole lot of applause that's one option the other option is to say what do I need to do what are the regulations so that Jordan's business model can be successful what do I have to do to create the incentives so that capital will fund a social undertaking such as Jordan's so from my perspective we should go down the second path we need to see how we can create an environment so a social undertaking such as Jordan's can be successful and that it can last over time it should be an economy of scale but that's not going to get me a lot of applause that is not going to get me a lot of votes in the short term and so therefore I think undoubtedly that we need politicians with a lot of courage to be able to take the path which is not the obvious one the obvious one is the first option is to go out and give away glasses so I think there has to be a much more in-depth analysis as to what the incentives of the government are so that these social innovators and entrepreneurs can exist and I would hope and I would pray that there could be an understanding that with social innovation and that creating an environment for Jordan to succeed will lead to a much more equitable world with many successful social entrepreneurs who can satisfy the enormous needs that are out there yes Marcelo of doing business of doing social business how hard it is to open a social business to close one so to improve the regulation we really need to know how to do it and that's a practical question I think the way you find as you go along the way but I wouldn't discard of course the Brazilian government so I have to see from my side but I think it's very hard in the private sector to have a scale for example both of a million you spend 0.5% of GDP reach 45 million people that stuff you have to have a private sector once you sunk that cost how can it you know that's I think it's the challenge because you cannot compete with that no one can compete has this delivery possibility so and I believe very much in terms of competition political competition across different sectors states one state do innovation incentive to talk with the private sector to learn how to do it because you know want to be you know want to be the president or you know so there is competition in a way you know so I think it's I wouldn't discard what I would like to have is a race you know everyone running towards the same objective which is eradicate poverty Carolina let me just give Michelle the floor for just a moment I would ask for your vision on this as well first of all let me note my admiration for the way that Jordan has described what social entrepreneurship is I think that a lot of this I get to be a little envious in fact I can see that there is enthusiasm and commitment here not just a business plan but in any case I think the way that the private sector perceives these types of initiatives if you will allow me a certain approach to this this allows for the creation of the middle class of the future so it's not that we need to motivate people to do this it's sort of a natural impulse to reach out to these people who don't have the means today and if we can reach out to the middle class of the future they can rise to that position I don't have a solution an immediate solution to how the private sector can help this magnificent initiative what I can say is that around the globe and that there are insurance policies and I say this not just because it's my area of business but that covers the cost of glasses and I mean I do like this dichotomy of trying to figure out whether I should have micro insurance policies or whether I hand out glasses I personally am convinced that even if the second path is much more complicated I think it is a more efficient path to reach this move to help move these people forward into a middle class that does not require social assistance and last but not least it's also a phenomenal way of giving this middle class of the future an idea of insurance that is much more favorable than what we have in more mature economies and again I'm from the insurance background so that's why I keep talking about that let me remind you that I will open up to questions but let me go back to and then Carolina and you're making me think about insurance companies and reinsurance companies and underwriting firms and they're looking at micro finance differently now and what is the vision and when did you begin to change your vision when you're looking at these populations that are not being served this idea once again is a vision that is an important step to make a more stable world a richer world and therefore a more promising world for all generations is perhaps more important for Latin America than for Asia because of the youth of Latin American democracy but in any case for what is truly a matter of passion in our industry is creating products that may be simple to sell even though the technology behind them if there is an industry that needs to make an effort in this area it's the insurance business we now not make all of the actuaries and actuator tables in the world happy of course not but we need something simple straightforward that to me is a scenic one of how we can win over this generation of the future people who need glasses people who need other things and I think that in this regard we as an industry, as an insurance industry there's much more that we can do and as an underwriter we can support our insurance customers much more effectively I think it's a very interesting intellectual game Carolina yes let me go back to this topic of votes and the political economy rather than the topic of the private sector participation in these sectors like one of the major concerns that we all have in social policy is how long we'll have sufficient resources to be able to hand out glasses or whatever good it may be the only way to be able to ensure the sustainability of an intervention is that it comes from a viable business that has an entrepreneur behind it that makes money with that intervention because otherwise in the next crisis in the next change of administration there will be a belt tightening measure and we'll lose that and you'll end up losing more votes than you gain when you started the program when your role is to use the information and the resources of the state and knowing where people are who need X, Y or Z we can certainly make this information or the healthcare sector information as to who needs glasses or who needs a conditional cash transfer and so forth it would probably facilitate the arrival of an entrepreneur such as Jordan to be able to provide that service but it would also provide sustainability to the capacities and the capabilities of individuals to learn to be trained and to go to school and so forth so I think the sustainability of these programs is also an underlying concept an underlying component of what we need to do as states in our social policy in caring for the needs of the most vulnerable and most impoverished persons in our societies and that's why the role of the private sector in sustainable business is vital to be able to grapple with these needs because it doesn't matter what happens with public policy, they will continue to be served. You make me think of George and the eye glasses and in the case of George and that this was a life-changing experience also for the people who received it but for the person who received these glasses but what happens if this person lives in an area that is far away from everything and they have problem in receiving food stuff for example so this would be a solution that goes halfway so we are going to talk here about a comprehensive vision which is very necessary when we are talking here about sustainable social solutions and I wanted to introduce someone who you are going to see on the screen in a second, he is Walter and he is a social entrepreneur and he received the award last year and if he received the award from Telefonica and he lives in Paramis actually he is a leader of the community and he lives close to another village called Capa Chica this village has 12,000 inhabitants and he organized the communities this is the interesting point he organized several communities around Titicaca Lake he organized five communities and on the basis of his experience with French tourists in this case he convinced his community that they had to offer tourist services he invited these people to live with them and to work in the fields and for example to prepare food stuff like quinoa and now he is planning his communities to use internet to open a page in Facebook and through Facebook to attract and communicate with European tourists who love to come to the Titicaca Lake and live with these communities Walter does not have the technical knowledge that Jordan has but he is a social entrepreneur he also needs an ecosystem and that is why it is so important to think of these other individuals you have also mentioned the interesting thing is that he is not waiting for the government he is a social entrepreneur he is using technology and he is changing the mindset of his communities I would like to understand how a government how a capitalist and how a product that can be used by this kind of entrepreneurs and also for Walter as a social entrepreneur can make a difference and can also scale up a project of tourism like this one there are families that had left and now they are going back to the region from Arequipa for example they are making a new start there are different ways of supporting this kind of entrepreneur the Peruvian government has given support to many such experiences of tourism not by giving them individual resources or offering them venture capital but by allowing them for example to visit other tourism experience of the sort so that they can benefit from mutual experiences and they see new ways of offering services however one of the big challenges that many social entrepreneurs face when they have this kind of tourism in rural communities traditional indigenous communities in Peru when they invite tourists to live with them is that in their own communities they lack water and sanitation and the government does not participate directly in their enterprises but they can help them by improving sanitary conditions in their communities because otherwise sooner or later these kind of experiences are going to collapse therefore these are very tasks and what we need in this case is a combination of programs that somehow make up the puzzle so that these social entrepreneurs not only make money but also they are able to teach others and to become an example for neighboring communities also with his whole environment to make it conducive and productive I think it's a very very I think that's the tough one for the private sector and also how you attack a holistic approach that's very hard also from the private sector because you want to explore certain like glasses and things like that so you have to have an integral approach to the problem and in my view I had an experience of evaluating many microcredit experience here in Peru, Mexico, Nicaragua I was doing an evaluation in Brazil in my country a big program and for my surprise the most interesting one was this one that was there in front of me I knew for 10 years so I think that perhaps Jordan should provide glasses for us as well you know I think we say we are in the you know we are in the knowledge era era do conhecimento I believe that we need to enter in the era of recognition to recognize the success of people the public sector and how is it the interface between them you have the scale you have the innovation how you combine that you have like a snake with wings you have to have a different type of animal you are not going to find solution in one or the other I think the best solution especially in Latin America you have big governments we pay taxes for that you are already paying for that so you might as well take advantage but how you combine the private sector ingenuity you know creativity how to combine that I think this is the challenge how to do it to Michel how to do it to Michel yes I believe that there is something that the private sector can do maybe this will not apply directly to Jonas experience but behind all these initiatives of social enterprises the worst thing that can happen is a destructive event and this we see in agriculture for example and also in some urban areas when there is some destructive event that ruins the work of 10 years for example an earthquake, a drought a flood etc therefore I believe that one of the aspects on which the private sector can intervene is to protect these people from these kind of disruptions from what we call volatility there is nothing worse with regard to these good initiatives to have an act of God and a natural event that destroys the work of many years just because nature decided it many things can be done in this regard and I believe that governments can add in their budgetary measures some kind of insurance because it is possible to ensure these kind of enterprises and to ensure against act of God also in some cases in Latin America we have seen some significant losses and many times the victims the first fixes are those that are supported by these kind of social initiatives well Alvaro is going to give his advice in this regard and then we will have a questions and answers session you mentioned the case of a social entrepreneur that's the case you presented and we must not forget that in any social innovation the entrepreneurs is at the center we can see things from our perspective and think that we have to create for example experiential tourism but we must not forget that in any successful project of a social nature at the center is the entrepreneur so we have to start asking ourselves how we can create a more conducive environment so that these entrepreneurs can develop innovation will be born from them but we have to provide them with the necessary infrastructure and elements so are you thinking of the government or you are thinking of doing it among all of us well all of us together yes that's the answer we can't think that the government is going to solve everything or the private sector can do it this is an error there is no cooperation among all so that we can put in place all the elements so that these social entrepreneurs are successful and we can take many examples of a social enterprise that have succeeded and in the end of the day it happened because at the core there was a social entrepreneur that have the quality to push forward these kind of projects they are the ones that make a difference people want to ask questions now so please use the microphone first of all I'm going to give the floor to the ladies please state your name and ask your questions very briefly not comments please just questions I have been very interested by the concern of the minister regarding scale because I'm Brazilian and Brazil is such a huge country but I was wondering when we are thinking of scaling or giving scale to one enterprise or one solution like was the case with the eye glasses or greater access to insurance policies maybe we should have many different social solutions at a micro level along the line of what Alvaro said to a certain extent for example creating a group or a system but what is your specific question my question is is it possible to think of scaling not one solution but social enterprises in a country because it may be the case of a child like the one that was described or another enterprise is to have we are looking for social returns and in the long run that's what we all want so we would have some sort of system of social everyone agrees that's on social targets like if a kid learns in school that's a social benefit that will last for his whole life so I think we have to think in terms of systemic approach where you start to measure for example in Rio every two months every kid do an exam math, science Portuguese so you can measure improvements but I think taking his point I believe very much in reward for social returns the problem is that if you have a tragedy the school gets flood as so often happens you have to have insurance it's not easy but I think we have to have a system that looks for social return and I think that's a role of the government I mean not a role I think it has to be a joint to take your point a joint construction but in the end of the day you have to have everyone there and the government is the one who can give scale to this thing and I think places like this the World Economic Forum is the place where you can diffuse this technology worldwide or to many countries let me just give I'm going to ask I'm going to allow I don't know why I'm speaking English I'm going to allow two questions and then go back to the panelist Alberto Franco I'm a social entrepreneur from Mexico this question is addressed to Carolina we were talking about two different paths of votes or another path which will be the right one but I think that there's something in between for example our government that opens a contest for social enterprises and so what can you tell us about this plan you have and how can you be transparent and have people participate with ideas but that the people know from the beginning how these funds are going to be invested one more question please good evening one of the main problems of the world in order to ensure sustainability continue with successful social practices programs that leave aside party policies I believe that the government has to follow these ecosystems to a certain extent is that your question yes so I mean how to support with resources how can you face these problems but what I did yesterday in the social innovation summit was that in the case of Peru that does not have a fund either private or public but small funds to support social enterprises mostly from international donors is that it is necessary to create a platform between the public and the private sector and join efforts with a body like the IDB that has expertise in order to create a mechanism to find solutions not one by one as the previous question was asking but by creating a platform that gives an answer to social issues that are faced in any country and this process has to be open and transparent and thus it will be able to do many innovations but the ones that win are not only the ones that obtain resources from these funds but also those that participate because those that do not win still get an idea about innovation and can benefit from mechanisms from which they can get support so I believe that the government has to join the private sector because the expertise is very different in every case and the need to apply certain social policies and also the need to sustain investments and also the expertise on innovation and the profitability of the businesses in the private sector have to be brought together both players have to be linked otherwise the innovations will be very private and will have very little scale and will not reach their full potential or otherwise the innovations will not be sustainable because they will always be subject to a political will or the existence of public resources therefore if we combine both sectors we will have the possibility of giving the full potential reaching the full potential of these opportunities Jordan you had a comment in this regard so one more question because we are out of time comment on scale as well as the question about having multiple interventions rather than just verticalizing every intervention in terms of scale certainly that is the objective of any social enterprise because we are measured by how much impact we have and unless we have scale we are not going to have the type of impact that we are all setting out to have however I think there is a little bit too much pressure to scale too quickly and a lot of social enterprises get into a situation because donors and others are measuring their impact and they are forcing them to scale they often scale business models that are immature and as you scale an immature business model you are digging yourself deeper and deeper into a hole so scale is a good thing but only once you have really developed a business model that truly deserves to be scaled and can as it scale gain power and not lose power so that is just one comment on scale the question of whether interventions are having a bunch of interventions in this world unfortunately there is a lot of great innovations there is microinsurance there is eyeglasses there is clean water filters there is cook stoves and on and on and treadle pumps part of the problem is the distribution of all of those things so you can keep creating wonderful interventions that can make a huge difference in the lives of the poor but unless you can get those products to the people who need it it is really difficult for not I live in New York City and I liken it to the Lincoln Tunnel everyone tries to get to New York City through a two lane Lincoln Tunnel and I am in the eyeglass car and someone else is in the cook stove car and on and on and really what we need the government to come in is make it a 14 lane tunnel rather than help my intervention specifically get through so the government really has to help with infrastructure and distribution to enable a whole host of things to reach the populations that we are all trying to reach one final question all the way to the rear and then there will be time perhaps during the coffee break I would like to wrap up with the final come up with one final question thank you Alejandro Villanoia from the Levisa Foundation in Mexico I wanted to ask when you talk about unleashing about reaching out to millions about what is the role of the media in this and whether we need to identify entrepreneurs or can people just be inspired to participate in this ecosystem I think the is the question for you or for is that for me for me very well Jordan do you want to answer the final question about entrepreneurs first and then I'll wrap up because I'm not a social entrepreneur but I do work in the media verify the question I want to make sure you understand it could you ask that question again are entrepreneurs basically what you're saying are social entrepreneurs born or made that's the question how to inspire people well one thing that I would say someone asked me an interesting question when I was in Mexico I was one of a dozen students on that trip and they asked me well why did you continue that path of the other folks on that trip went and opened up private practices in New York and Boston and so forth and a lot of it had to do with having a prepared heart and being open to an experience like that I personally was a Mountaineer and I did a lot of work I spent a lot of time in vast wilderness areas and in the first half of my life the environments that I inhabited if you will were telling me that I was dust in the wind that I really had no purpose and had a very nihilistic approach or outlook to life and then I came across this boy and he showed me for the first time that I actually did matter and that was a really striking moment but it wouldn't have struck me as powerfully if I wasn't prepared for that moment if I wasn't kind of looking for purpose if I wasn't hungry to try to figure out what my role was in this greater world so I think kind of having a prepared heart and mind is really a critical component another critical component is to push yourself I was born in the suburb of New York what was I doing in rural Mexico and so to push yourself to experience things that you normally wouldn't experience in your life because one never knows what direction it might lead you to and what time it might take very well we've been told there is time for a final comment proliferating social innovation I believe that we in the media have to tell these stories and many media I mean we're a pan regional media we have different initiatives that we have we have inside Africa CNN heroes just to mention a couple CNN and CNN in action but we also have to talk about what the small scale entrepreneurs are doing at the large scale ones and not just the ministers or the great CEOs of companies but also those that are working directly and operationally with the individuals who are benefitting I'm convinced that we need to help these individuals to talk more about their incredible platforms and take note of the things that are being done because it is important for us to I mean the way that we disseminate their effort is also important and social networks are also tremendous today for these purposes and we as a media and the social networks as well they should have their own media based ecosystem that they can work in but sometimes we have to teach them how to work with a local radio station in Tel Aviv for example at an event at ECLAG an entrepreneur from ECLAG asked me how to get to in contact with Tel Aviv and asked me for the formula for that but in any case there are many different types of circles and that expand as they grow the last point is proliferating in this context American social innovation one brief thought one brief sentence from each of you how do we do that how do we expand I think that undoubtedly we all have an inspiration to do good I think there is a generational paradigm shift young entrepreneurs are seeing that having a purpose is a tremendous opportunity and perhaps what I would recommend to young entrepreneurs here in this room and those who will be watching this show is just think about all those quality products and services that you use in your daily lives and see whether people in low income sectors have those products and services and if they don't there's a great opportunity for business and for impact two things first how we I think communication is essential so we have not only a Jordan effect to propagate that example I think this is no evaluations I did what there is this endosyncratic thing which is that guy starts everything and that's very hard to replicate so you may try to communicate that and so this is the how you inspire people I think this is a key thing and that's that's the human side that's very hard and the second is the name of the Peruvian program I think that's a task for everyone and just to comment her question what I find really hard in the electoral market is when we are talking about children children do not vote so it's really hard to get politicians to work for children for the future that I find hard to do so I think social targets I think this is one way to try to have longer horizon not to be on the next election but to have long term the long run perspective thank you Jordan yes it took us 10 years to reach our first million customers it will take us 2 years to reach our second million customers and that all sounds wonderful but remember there are 700 million people who need glasses so we haven't even made a tiny dent in the overall problem and so and me personally I'm moving away from just building the institution of a small social enterprise and really saying how can we engage the business community how can we engage governments in order to scale to make a true purposeful dent in this overall problem we need a three legged stool we need civil society social entrepreneurs but more importantly in order for us business community to engage with us we need the governments to engage with us and that's true for all social enterprises as they move from small kind of pilot programs to those that can affect massive change and impact thank you Carolina I would build on the basis of what Jordan has said innovators, social entrepreneurs there are many and there will be many more they don't need decisive decisive action to continue to do what they do the question then is how do we ensure that we can replicate these individual actions or the small scale actions and can reach out to millions and millions of people and that requires that tie in between innovators and the public sector the innovators exist the problems have been identified what we need to do is move forward jointly so that these innovations translate into well being not well being overnight or one shot opportunities but something that is sustainable for the entrepreneur, for government and for the population that provides continuous well being Michelle a few final thoughts I think the young generations of today and tomorrow when they look at this vision 30 years ago will be asking why are you talking about social entrepreneurs they're just entrepreneurs and I guess the point is that we need to recognize that entrepreneurs come in many different flavors they all take risks but they are the ones who are preparing the future and laying the foundation for the future of this planet and I think that in the future the word social will disappear from this task and that it will be an excellent that would be an excellent signal thank you very much for this very worthwhile rich exchange of experiences and discussions I hope that this will be a second of many more opportunities like this in the future thank you very much for being with us