To groom social entrepreneurship in Asia, building a culture of innovation is the key. The social issues in urban areas in Asia are getting more serious and alike. It’s worth our time to think about social innovation ideas together and share experience along the road.
To pathway for a sustainable development of social innovation culture in the region, we would like to initiate the discussion by promoting social. The Asia Social Innovation Award would serve as one of the pioneer to create this new page, and will be your first step to change the world with your simple idea!
Make use of your imagination, and change might be initiated by you in the society!
You too can bring about a Social Revolution!
About the Award Calling for Applications »We believe that the urban social challenges in many Asian cities are quite alike, these pressing problems need to be solved immediately, and whenever the traditional model does not satisfy the needs of the society, innovations are demanded.
"Social Enterprise" has become a hot topic in recent years. However people tend to focus their discussion on the entity itself, instead of the more powerful concept behind that leads to ultimate social change - "Social Innovation", which is also relatively weak in AsiAa, creating a big barrier for social entrepreneurship to groom in the region.
However, from a worldwide perspective, social enterprises have undeniably brought great positive impact worldwide. For instance, social enterprise accounts for 1% of the GDP in UK. In fact, social enterprises contribute tremendously in creating a culture of social innovation among communities.
In order to promote the culture of social innovation and enrich people’s knowledge on social issues, and to build a platform to encourage the sharing of ideas and experience among Asian cities, the Asia Social Innovation Award has been born since 2008, hoping to pathway for a sustainable development of social innovation culture in the region.
The Award will be the first innovative social enterprise event in Asia to apply a simple and easy mechanism to engage the general public to participate in the discussion, and to deliver positive and concrete innovative solutions to tackle these problems.
We hope that this simple idea-generating competition calling for level-zero social innovation ideas will be able to attract the general public to take part.
So, it's now time for us to brainstorm some creative ideas, and you too can bring about a social revolution. Make use of your imagination, and change might be initiated by you in the society!
Please pick one of the following social agenda, and propose an innovative social enterprise concept using 200-500 words. You may also submit your idea in a video format.
Marginal communities, including ethnic minorities, new immigrants, young offenders, mentally challenged, are omnipresent across Asian cities, but often overlooked by the general public. Various factors such as low income, racism, discrimination in employment, as well as lack of social support all existing obstacles to the inclusion of these communities in our society.
As the number of immigrants surge, together with the compounding social problems, these marginal communities will continue to grow in size and variety, and it is increasingly challenging, to provide mechanisms for their meaningful participation in the civic, economic and political life of society, yet we cannot rely on the government to do all.
What creative solutions can you come up with to build a more inclusive society?
Fast-greying economic regions in Asia are going to be confronted with the challenges of noteworthy aging population. Longevity and low birth rate are the main contributing factors of such phenomenon, and the elder dependency ratio in some cities is already above 20%.
To combat this inevitable situation, innovative ideas are needed. This includes methods to cope with the pressure on healthcare services and long-term medical care required by elderly; the design of various community facilities and infrastructure; the requirements of tailored-design products and services for the elderly etc.
What innovative ideas can you think of to help our society adapt to an aging environment?
The degree of urbanization and poverty in Asia varies across cities but it is clear that income disparity is deteriorating as evident from the high Gini Coefficient.
With the climbing inflation rate, access to basic necessities has become a challenging task for many. The income disparity also leads to a series of problems, including working poor; elderly poor; difficulties for ethnic minorities and marginal youth to find jobs; housing and food problems; and the complications for those suffering from intergenerational poverty to receive quality education.
What can be done to alleviate poverty from bottom up?
Criteria include originality, viability and sustainability of idea. Apart from imaginative and innovative ideas or concept, existing ideas are also welcomed.
Stephen Chan
Chief Executive Officer of Commercial Radio Hong Kong
Christine Fang, BBS, JP
Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Council of Social Service
Dumith Fernando
Managing Director and Chief Operating Officer of Credit Suisse, Asia Pacific
Joseph Ngai
Managing Partner, McKinsey & Co. Hong Kong
Diana Tsui
Head of Corporate Social Responsibility and Diversity, KPMG
On or before 22nd October, 2012 (Monday) at 23:59pm (Hong Kong time)
1 List of qualified Asian countries/cities, subjected to the addition or removal of countries at the sole discretion of SVhk:
Bangladesh, Bhutan, Brunei, Burma, Cambodia, China, East Timor, India, Indonesia, Japan, Laos, Malaysia, Maldives, Mongolia,
Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam.
The winning ideas from other Asian countries will be posted in early-November, and the winners will be notified individually.
The Award Presentation Ceremony for "Hong Kong" and "Asian" winners will be held on November 18, and November 30, during the dinner at the Social Enterprise Summit respectively.
You can learn more about the past year’s winning ideas at the Asia Social Innovation Award 2010 & 2011 website.
With the support of corporate partners and other SE-related organizations, Social Ventures Hong Kong would like to further expand the event, by inviting ASIA2012’s finalists and winners to join the House of Social Innovators.
Formed under the collaboration of various SE-competitions, together with alumnus of these competitions, HoSI is a platform that will provide on-going support to passionate social entrepreneurs to transform social innovative ideas to sustainable social enterprise and to nurture investment-ready social enterprises and bring it to the marketplace.
For each application, you only need to suggest an idea that addresses one of the social issues. You can at most submit 3 separate applications, each of them tackling one of the given problems.
Applicants are only allowed to type out their idea or upload their video to YouTube and submit their application online. Please email us if you experience any difficulties submitting your idea online.
The judging panel will only judge those ideas that are in English or Chinese. If you unable to fulfill this requirement, please consult the organization you belong to, and see if they will be able to translate the main theme of your idea into the appropriate language.
We have received a record-breaking number of 480+ submissions this year from all across Asia and after a tough deliberation by our judges, the results are finally out! We would like to take this opportunity to congratulate the winners and all the participants for their truly innovative ideas. The judges were highly impressed with the quality of submissions received this year and it was a very difficult choice to select only one winner from each category. We hope you have enjoyed the process of thinking social and strongly encourage you to ask your family and friends to do the same.
To keep up-to-date with Social Ventures Hong Kong (SVhk)'s future competitions, events or announcement, please don't forget to like us on Facebook or to subscribe to our mailing list. Once again, thank you all for your efforts and we appreciate your creativity and innovation.
Aging PopulationEnglish Name: Natthaporn KittiwithayakulCountry of Residence: Thailand Idea: Knowledge Sharing Platform - Elderly people are valued for their life experience and expertise,which will be gone once the person passes away. The aim of this ideawould be to extract this knowledge and specialization in order to create an online and mobile application pay-per-view system.The campaign would allow the aging population to gain pride in their specializations by providing it to those among general public who want to learn more about it. Here, the public would be participating in a socially-responsible mission to help the elderly by providing small amounts of capital and helping to carry on their stories and valuable treasures. |
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PovertyEnglish Name: Rachit Kumar SharmaCountry of Residence: India Idea: Know Your Country - The pressure to migrate to urban areas to earn a daily wage is one of the biggest problems for the poor across Asia. In turn, it leaves their families back in villages redundant of any economic activity and dependent on the daily urban wages. “Know your country” project aims at solving this problem by employing rural tourism to empower the rural economy, creating sustainable indigenous micro centers in villages and serving the greater cause of reducing urban poor migration and slums. All this while preserving and promoting the national heritage of the country and sharing it with the next generation. |
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Social InclusionEnglish Name: Chan Lok Yee KittieCountry of Residence: Cambodia Idea: Exotasty - Do you look for exotic and tasty food or an unforgettable experience when traveling? Exotasty is the right place for you! Exotasty satisfies the tourists’ desire for local food in its original flavors by utilizing the skills of local Asian people. The cooks are local ladies who are proud of their cooking skills, while the waiters are young people who aspire for success in the hospitality industry. Exotasty is also a place for international volunteers to explore Asian cultures and share their hospitality experience with the local staff. Exotasty is not simply a restaurant, but a stage for people to showcase their talents and revive their hope. |
Aging PopulationEnglish Name: Chan Wing YeeChinese Name: 陳穎儀 Idea: A Time Journey in Hong Kong - The living experience of elderly is a valuable asset in the tourism industry. Our enterprise will hire the elderly as the assistant tour guide to provide local and unique information about Hong Kong, such as urban legends. By re-entering the labor market, elderly may rebuild their confidence and earn a better living. These may bring about a better psychological development. In terms of tourism development, the double tour guide system can have a check and balance function on the quality of local tour guides. |
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PovertyEnglish Name: Li Cho YinChinese Name: 李祖賢 Idea: KID not little is a reality television series suggesting that even small fry can accomplish big tasks. In each episode, an adult will share a day at work with a child from a poor family. By experiencing their dream occupations, the children will be able to broaden their horizons, to revive and believe in their dreams. By inviting celebrity to participate, we wish to gain sponsors, donations from audience to our children and to raise awareness of child poverty in Hong Kong. |
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Social InclusionEnglish Name: Li Ying Yiu, KimmyChinese Name: 李影瑤 Idea: Good Days - With the idea of “buying good things on good days”, Good Days is a website serving as a promotion platform for marketing social enterprises, targeted at marginal communities that are in the food/beverage and gift retail sectors during festivals and corporate/personal celebrations (e.g. birthday, wedding and anniversary). The website is divided into 3 parts: (a) the restaurant guide; (b) the catering service guide; and (c) the gift guide, each containing detailed introduction and promotion materials (including employees’ stories and customers’ feedback). Orders for catering services and gifts could be placed through Good Days. |
English Name: Cheung Tsz Tung, Leung Yan Yee, To Mun |
Being one of the social entrepreneurship intermediates in Hong Kong, Social Ventures Hong Kong (SVhk), has dedicated itself in promoting this concept through practicing venture philanthropy in supporting social innovation projects. At the same time, SVHK will promote social entrepreneurship by providing training, consultancy and organize promotion events in various sectors.
Contact info
The Good Lab, L1, The Sparkle
500 Tung Chau Street
West Kowloon, Hong Kong SAR
T. + (852) 3996 1946
F. + (852) 3013 8637
E. enquiry @ socialinnovationaward.asia