British Council Bangladesh, in partnership with ChangeMaker (a national non-profit organisation), launched ‘Innovate, Incubate and Grow (IIG): A Social Enterprise Support Programme’ on Saturday, 16 January 2016 at 4pm at the British Council, 5 Fuller Road premises. IIG is a capacity-building programme specially designed to enhance the social and environmental problem solving knowledge and skills of young entrepreneurs through sustainable business models.
Through this nationwide competition, the British Council will invite innovative, unique and pragmatic ideas developed by promising young social entrepreneurs which will be supported until they become bona fide businesses. The key objectives of the competition include identifying and encouraging young people to pursue social entrepreneurship, developing entrepreneurial knowledge and skills in young social entrepreneurs through mentoring by a panel of experts, raising awareness among the wider audience about social enterprise and its contributions in the society and facilitating set up and growth of budding social enterprises through the British Council Social Enterprise partner network.
Barbara Wickham, Director of British Council Bangladesh delivered the welcome note at the launching event. Dr. Qazi Kholiquzzaman Ahmad, Chairman of Palli Karma-Sahayak Foundation (PKSF) Bangladesh was present as Chief Guest while Syed S Kaiser Kabir, CEO and Managing Director of Renata Limited was also present as Special Guest.
IIG aims to develop capacity in existing and potential young social entrepreneurs by raising awareness and understanding of sustainable business models among them. It will provide them necessary tools which will enable them to harness the immense possibilities social enterprise offers. Besides, it will contribute towards inclusive and sustainable economic models focusing on social as well as financial value.
It is a part of British Council’s Social Enterprise Capacity Building and Business and Investment Readiness Programme (BiR). The young entrepreneurs will be provided with training, mentoring and testing of the business models for their products and services through a two and a half month journey of support and challenge.