On the 27th of September, in Chisinau, Republic of Moldova, ENSIE participated to the fifth edition of the National Conference on Social Entrepreneurship. It was, this year, dedicated to assessing the impact of social enterprises, promoting good practices and developing a social economy network in Moldova. More than 60 persons attended the event, representatives of non-governmental organizations, social enterprises, authorities and public institutions, diplomatic missions, as well as international social partners and other citizens interested in the field of entrepreneurship.
Among the guests, Anna Lyberg, the Ambassador of Sweden to the Republic of Moldova Mag. Gero Stuller, Councilor for Labor, Social Affairs, Health and Consumer Protection of the Austrian Embassy in the Republic of Moldova, Ionela Costachi, Secretary of State at the Ministry of the Economy and Infrastructure, Karel Vanderpoorten, Policy Officer in the Directorate-General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs of the European Commission, and M. Lilian Carmanu, Vicepresident of the Ialoveni District (Moldova).
Aziza Yussupova, Policy officer at the European Network of Social Integration Enterprises (ENSIE) and Charlotte Gruber, member of the board of directors of the Network of Integration Social Enterprises of Styria, Austria, were there to present practical models of networks, which were opportunities to consolidated the social enterprise sector and strengthen their representation at the national level. All the participants agreed with the need to create such a network at the national level. This network would strengthen the capacities of NGOs and social enterprises and would help public institutions to formulate, monitor and evaluate policies to enhance the social and economic impact.
ENSIE presented also ENSIE also presented its Impact WISEs study which aims to measure the social economic benefits created by social enterprises. Other experts from the social economy sector in Spain, Austria, Italy and Belgium shared their best practices and instruments to measure the social impact. There was also an Interactive Masterclass facilitated by three experts, Valentina Tosi, Gabriele Guzzetti and Stefan Pahon, where participants were able to ask questions and share their views. Measuring the social impact of social enterprises is key in the context of competition between social enterprises and for-profit enterprises, as the former always need to provide evidence of their added value, in order to guarantee their legitimacy.
ENSIE was pleased to participate to this event, in collaboration with a representant from our moldovan member, Eco-Razeni, Sergiu Gurau. We were glad to see the enthusiasm of the Social Economy sector in Moldova to build a network. This is the first step towards a better representation and coordinated actions of this crucial sector for both the economy and the society.