No. 57 (2019): Issue 57 | Asia 2019: A Dynamic Social Innovation Ecosystem

Dear Reader,

See others as yourself. See families as your family. See towns as your town. See countries as your country. See worlds as your world.

-Lao Tzu

Today, we are releasing the latest edition of the Social Innovations Journal, Edition 57: “Asia 2019: A Dynamic Social Innovation Ecosystem,” curated by the Journal’s International Director Alejandra Navas that features social innovators from across Asia. These innovators are reenvisioning societal issues and finding ways to work collaboratively with communities, partner organizations, government, for-profit business, and academia to uncover solutions to the challenges that too often divide us. According to the United Nations, there are 48 countries in Asia and the harsh reality of poverty is felt across these geographic boundaries. In response to the crippling poverty across the continent exacerbated by the rise in climate concerns, dwindling resources, growing populations of elderly, health care inequality, mass urbanization, and more, Asia is a fertile ground for social innovation to take root.

According to the Asian Development Bank, the Asia and Pacific regions have the largest number of poor citizens with 63 percent of the world’s poor living in this area in 2008. Social entrepreneurs across Asia view these challenges as opportunities to disrupt the status quo in order to grow social innovation as not only a response but a sustainable solution to eradicate these issues. Through information, knowledge, financial resources, and technology -- Asia’s social engineers are changing the trajectory of the region by promoting a dynamic social innovation ecosystem that will provide answers to the communities’ problems that these innovators have embraced as their own opportunities.

Social innovation is leveraged to tackle unmet social needs that oftentimes government cannot solve independently -- an out-of-the-box approach to solve societal problems across Asia is not only innovative, it is critical.

The Hope Institute research team, with the support of the Rockefeller Foundation, investigated how social innovation practices have been put into effect in Asian countries and how they have influenced its societies.[i] This research strongly supports the core principle that “social innovation is neither context-free nor value-neutral”.[ii]

Despite, growth across Asia, not all people have reaped the benefits and social innovation is responding to this by redistributing resources, providing access to quality health care, improving educational opportunities, among other key initiatives. Social innovation has a pivotal role in creating a more robust and dynamic Asia for all people today, tomorrow, and generations to come. 

The articles highlighted in this edition came as part of Alejandra’s tireless efforts to identify edge social innovations that best demonstrate the dedication that Asia’s social innovators bring to meet the challenges of the region by not only embracing the community and its issues but also through empowering the communities as part of the long-term solutions. We hope that you are inspired by the work and commitment of the authors featured in this edition and that you continue to embrace communities in need as your own. The issues found in this edition are our shared challenges; we ask that you seek to become part of the collective solution.

Yours in innovation and change,

Nicholas Torres and Tine Hanson-Turton, Co-founders
Alejandra Navas, International Director
Mike Clark, President and Alescia Dingle, Managing Editor