Social Entrepreneurship

A Description of the UN s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Economic Development
The purpose of this paper is to provide a critical analysis of case of an existing social enterprise, the UN’s Department of Economic and Social Affairs, as well as an examination concerning how entrepreneurial practices are introduced in response to social problems at this organization. A brief history of this organization is followed by descriptions of the social challenge it is tasked with addressing and the business model that it uses for this purpose. Finally, a discussion concerning the conflict between the organization’s social and economic purposes and the corresponding issues which were identified that remain to be resolved is followed by a summary of the research and important findings concerning the UN’s Department of Economic and Social Affairs and its mission in the paper’s concluding section.
Review and Analysis
1. History of Social Enterprise
Originally founded in 1948 as the Department of Economic Affairs, the UN’s Department of Economic and Social Affairs has become a vital interface between global policies and national action in the economic, social and environmental spheres today (About us, 2020). According to the description provided by the UN, “Rooted in the United Nations Charter and guided by the universal and transformative 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and other global agreements, [the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs] responds to the needs and priorities of the global community” (About us, 2020, para. 3). At present, the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs partners with more than 75 nations to promote innovative, evidence-based approaches to sustainable development based on the principles, goals and targets set forth in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (Towards Sustainable Development for All, 2019).
2. Social Challenge Explained
Given its global mandate and the scope of the problem, it is not surprising that the social challenge tackled by the UN’s 2030 agenda for sustainable development is especially ambitious. In this regard, the preamble to the UN’s “Transforming Our World: The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development” (hereinafter alternatively “the Agenda”) states that: “We are resolved to free the human race from the tyranny of poverty and want and to heal and secure our planet [and] are determined to take the bold and transformative steps which are urgently needed to shift the world on to a sustainable and resilient path” (p. 3). This initiative was introduced during the U.N. Sustainable Development Summit held at New York City in September 2015 (At UN Summit, World Rulers Adopt Agenda for Global Socialism 2015). At that summit, more than 150 national leaders formally accepted the provisions of the document, "Transforming Our World: The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.”
The Agenda developed by the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs provides an overview of problems of interest and the urgency that is involved in responding to them (Manandhar & Hawkes, 2018). The Agenda also sets forth a series of prioritized, global sustainable development goals as well as nearly 170 targets that are based on the effectiveness of a predecessor program, the global Millennium Development Goals. Although similar to the previous goal model, the Agenda also includes a number of timely social issues that have assumed greater urgency in recent years (Oda, 2019). For instance, according to Krisbreg (2015, p. 2), “The new Sustainable Development Goals address health and well-being, poverty and hunger, as well as a range of social and environmental needs, such as education, gender equality, job opportunities, climate change, energy access, resource consumption, biodiversity loss and ocean conservation.”
With peak oil looming on the horizon, climate change causing worldwide extremes in weather patterns and an ongoing Covid-19 global pandemic, these are indeed ambitious goals, and the UN is directly on point in noting the urgency that is involved in effecting these types of major global changes. It is also noteworthy that the UN’s commitment extends to all 8 billion of the world’s citizens. For instance, the preamble adds that: As we embark on this collective journey, we pledge that no one will be left behind” (p. 3). In sum, the Agenda promulgated by the UN’s Department of Economic and Social Affairs Sustainable Development sets forth a bold vision and ambitious set of goals for the future of the entire planet, as guided by the 18 goals set forth in Table 1 below:
Table 1
Goals of the Agenda
Goal
Description
Goal 1
End poverty in all its forms everywhere.
Goal 2
End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture.
Goal 3
Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages.
Goal 4
Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all.
Goal 5
Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls.
Goal 6
Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all.
Goal 7
Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all.
Goal 8
Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all.
Goal 9
Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation.
Goal 10
Reduce inequality within and among countries.
Goal 11
Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable.
Goal 12
Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns.
Goal 13
Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts.*
Goal 14
Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development.
Goal 15
Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss.
Goal 16
Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels.
Goal 17
Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development.
* Acknowledging that the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change is the primary international, intergovernmental forum for negotiating the global response to climate change.
Taken together, it is clear that the above-listed sustainable development goals are an ambitious and even aggressive social enterprise, but the problem areas that are involved demand urgent, worldwide action led by a nonpartisan organization that relies on science rather than politics to achieve its goals using a nonprofit business model as discussed below.
3. Business Model
The nonprofit business model that is used by the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs to achieve the above-listed 17 goals is described using the business model canvas below.
Key partners: Public-private partnerships are used to facilitate an intensive global engagement in support of implementation of all the Agenda’s goals and targets. This approach is designed to bring national governments together with the private sector as well as members of civil societies, the larger United Nations network system and other stakeholders in marshalling the resources that are available for achieving the Agenda’s multiple purposes.
Key activities: The key activities of the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs in this social enterprise are generally set forth in the Agenda’s 17 goals, but especially the provision of support to strengthen the participation of local communities in improving water and sanitation management as well as efforts to reduce reliance on fossil fuels.
Value propositions: The primary value proposition of the Agenda is the fact that a multinational, nongovernmental organization is the optimal, cost-effective approach to addressing global problems.
Customer relationships: For the purposes of the Agenda, the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs views developing and developed nations alike as its “customers” and pursues strategic public-private partnerships at every opportunity where appropriate and most cost-effective for achieving the Agenda’s goals.
Customer segments: The far-flung scope of the Agenda’s multiple goals means that the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs’ customer segments vary not only country to country, but within countries as well, depending on the needs of local and regional stakeholders and the capacities of local and national governments.
Key resources: The UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs currently oversees or has had partnership interests in 435 sustainable development projects world-wide. A number of other initiatives are in the planning stages, but the ongoing global Covid-19 pandemic has placed many of these efforts on hold pending its resolution.
Channels: The selection of distribution channels depends on the jurisdiction and nature of the sustainable development initiatives that are involved. In some developing nations, for example, the lack of a viable infrastructure may limit the abilities of the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs in achieving their goals and targets, underscoring the ground-up nature of the work that is involved in implementing and administering sustainable economic development programs.
Revenue streams: At present, 129 countries contribute nearly $2 billion to fund UN operations worldwide, including $252 million for the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs. These revenues, however, are always subject to the political will of member nations, and some countries have long run a deficit with their funding.
4. Conflict between Social and Economic Purposes
Despite the laudable nature of the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs, the Agenda has been criticized by some authorities as representing an ill-disguised attempt to thwart the authority of local governments and exert greater power in emerging regions around the world (Newman, 2018). The Agenda does in fact stipulate that, “The scale and ambition of the new Agenda requires a revitalized Global Partnership to ensure its implementation. This Partnership will work in a spirit of global solidarity, in particular solidarity with the poorest and with people in vulnerable situations” (p. 30).
On its face, this bold declaration appears innocuous, but some critics argue that the Agenda is actually a stratagem to achieve more nefarious global objectives. In this regard, Newman (2018) points out that, “The [Agenda] is one of the international agreements being used to impose a global government on humanity. Adopted in September of 2015, the deal calls for radical, centrally directed changes in the lives of every person on the planet” (p. 20). In reality, though, across-the-board radical changes are truly needed in everyone’s lives in order to address the global threat of poverty and inequitable income distribution as well as climate change and these issues are discussed further below.
5. Issues Identified
It is reasonable to suggest that many if not most of the criticisms that have been leveled against the Agenda are not only inaccurate, they are actually hampering efforts by the United Nations to effect meaningful changes in regions of the world that desperately need them. For example, Newman (2018, p. 22) and like-minded opponents of the Agenda argue that, “There are 17 ‘Goals’ in all, with 169 ‘targets,’ that, taken together, would replace liberty, self-government, free markets, and nationhood with totalitarian technocratic rule at the global level. Reading the document, that much becomes clear.”
While most reasonable observers dismiss such conspiracy theorists out of hand, there is some justification for their criticisms against the Agenda. For example, Newman (2018) cites the unwavering support of China and former socialist UN secretary-generals as proof that the Agenda is actually a means to an end. In this regard, Newman (2018, p. 22) notes that former UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon characterized the Agenda as “a universal, integrated and transformative vision for a better world” and “we must use the goals to transform the world…. Institutions will have to become fit for a grand new purpose.”
Likewise, other critics argue that, “As with all socialist and totalitarian schemes, the UN's controversial agenda was marketed using vague, meaningless platitudes such as, for example, creating a ‘better’ world, and ‘ending’ poverty--common slogans among tyrants stretching back centuries” (At UN Summit 2015, p. 8). Certainly, this type of hyperbolic rhetoric is jarring to some observers in the West that, a la QAnon, but growing fear a global conspiracy is afoot and opponents maintain that the Agenda is one of its main tools in overthrowing the current status quo and replacing it with one headed by child-trafficking pedophiles with a fundamentally evil agenda of their own.
6. Proposed Social Innovation
The research to date confirms that it is useless to try to argue with conspiracy theorists that have their mind made up about a controversial issue, and the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development is certainly no exception. A superior strategy to enhance the receptiveness of the Agenda’s goals would be to emphasize the “what’s in it for them” aspects of development initiatives to the people that are actually being positively affected by these programs. Finally, the Agenda is essentially silent concerning local hiring practice, but employing local nationals in any Agenda project should represent a major priority for the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs.
References
‘About us.’ (2020). UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs. [online] available: https://www.un.org/development/desa/en/about.html.
‘At UN Summit, World Rulers Adopt Agenda for Global Socialism.’ (2015, October 19). The New American, vol. 31, no. 20, p. 8.
Krisberg, K (2015, November-December). ‘New 15-year goals support healthier lives for world's population: Poverty targeted.’ The Nation's Health, vol. 45, no. 9, pp. 1-4.
Manandhar, M & Hawkes, S. (2018, September). ‘Gender, Health and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable development.’ Bulletin of the World Health Organization, vol. 96, no. 9, pp. 644-651.
Newman, A. (2018, August 20). UN "environmental’ schemes advance world government. The New American, vol. 34, no 16, pp. 29-33.
Oda, Y. (2019, March). ‘Mainstreaming Gender Perspectives in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): A Study on Selected 2017 Voluntary National Reviews (VNRs).’ Journal of Asian Women's Studies, vol. 25, p. 1.
‘Towards Sustainable Development for All.’ (2019). UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs. [online] available: https://www.un.org/development/desa/en/wp-content/uploads/ 2019/05/UN_DESA_pamphlet_080519_review.pdf.
Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. New York: United Nations.