RIYADH: The General Authority for Small and Medium Enterprises, also known as Monsha’at, in partnership with the National Center for Development of the Non-Profit Sector and the Social Development Bank, concluded its Social Entrepreneurship Week activities.
This event, part of a series of business weeks implemented by Monsha’at, aimed to empower entrepreneurs to capitalize on social investment opportunities and build strategic partnerships, according to the Saudi Press Agency.
The week saw the participation of 41 entities from the public and private sectors, and featured over 843 consultative sessions for 2,818 beneficiaries, including aspiring entrepreneurs.
The week included nine dialogue sessions and 46 entrepreneurial meetings that discussed social investment opportunities, mechanisms for building sustainable models, and the role of partnerships in enhancing the developmental impact of social enterprises.
The sessions addressed various topics, including investment opportunities in social entrepreneurship, mechanisms for building projects with a sustainable impact, empowering social enterprises, and strengthening integration between the public and non-profit sectors to support development initiatives.
Deputy Minister of Environment, Water and Agriculture Mansour bin Hilal Al-Mashiti affirmed during a dialogue session at the week’s events that investment in social entrepreneurship offers promising growth opportunities, and that passion is the driving force behind transforming community-based ideas into reality.
He explained that personal attributes, teamwork, business model, concept, and funding are among the most important factors for the success of a social entrepreneur. Al-Mashiti emphasized that the environment, water, and agriculture sector provides significant opportunities for innovators and entrepreneurs.
For his part, Prince Fahd bin Mansour bin Nasser bin Abdulaziz, founder and chairman of the board of directors of the Vision for Entrepreneurship Association, stated in his dialogue session during the week’s events that the social entrepreneurship sector combines achieving financial returns with creating a sustainable social and developmental impact.
He stressed that the culture of giving and volunteer work in the Kingdom represents a strong foundation for the sector’s growth, with opportunities to direct resources toward projects that achieve a sustainable economic and social impact.
For her part, Princess Nouf bint Mohammed bin Abdullah, CEO of the King Khalid Foundation, emphasized during a dialogue session at the week’s events that the success of social projects begins with understanding the true need, addressing the root causes of challenges, and designing practical and scalable solutions.
She noted the need for entrepreneurs to be empowered, have their capacities built, receive mentorship, and be connected with suitable partners and investors at various stages of their projects’ growth.
She pointed out that the King Khalid Foundation’s “Capacity Building” program supports non-profit organizations through training, consulting, and institutional capacity building, thereby enhancing the sustainability of their impact.
She affirmed that the “Social Investment Program” works to create positive social change and assists social enterprises in planning and balancing their social projects, in addition to facilitating their access to supporting and enabling entities.
Salman Al-Khattaf, director general of decision support at the Quality of Life Program Center, reviewed the role of social entrepreneurship in improving quality of life by developing initiatives and projects that contribute to addressing societal challenges and raising the level of community participation.
He emphasized the importance of innovative solutions and integration between national programs and entrepreneurs to maximize developmental impact and achieve the goals of the Kingdom’s Vision 2030.
The organization of Social Entrepreneurship Week comes as an extension of Monsha’at’s efforts to develop the social entrepreneurship ecosystem and empower social impact enterprises to access investment opportunities, strategic partnerships, and empowerment programs.
This contributes to enhancing the sustainability of social enterprises and increasing the contribution of the non-profit sector to economic and social development, in line with the goals of the Kingdom’s Vision 2030
