Medellin: Only cliches are left to fight

MEDELLIN: FROM THE DRUG CARTEL TO THE WORLD’S MOST INNOVATIVE CITY.

Famous for its violent past and its notorious drug lord Pablo Escobar, Medellin turned out to be completely different from what we expected.

We imagined Medellin as a somewhat dangerous city with old colonial style buildings. You can imagine our surprise on the road from the airport to Laureles (a Medellin neighbourhood), seeing the city for the first time: super modern buildings, cutting-edge architecture, a cable car and an over ground metro! WOW.

Medellin is a beautiful modern city. It was actually chosen as the most innovative city in the world by Urban Land Institute, recognized as the preferred corporate business destination in South America. Medellin won the last Veronica Rudge Green Prize in Urban Design by Harvard University. The award honors sustainable transformative mobilities.

The coolest part is that we got to visit this miracle of social urbanism with our friend Gabi (Gabriela Guerrero) a bright and successful eco-architect social entrepreneur!

Our 3 key insiders’ info about Medellin

1. Paisas (so are called the people from the Medellin region) are very proud of their city and its innovative architecture. They also absolutely hate talking about Pablo Escobar.

2. Medellin was transformed mostly due to a policy called “Social Urbanism”. The Economist explains it quite well: “The municipal government spends the biggest portion of its budget (85 per cent of $2.2-billion this year) on infrastructure and services for the poorest parts of the city. That spending includes the community programs, and also some truly imaginative public transportation solutions and startling pieces of modern architecture that have been erected in new breathing spaces forced into the once impenetrable hillside shantytowns.”

3. Largely unaccustomed to seasonal shifts in weather, tropical zones like Medellin will be disproportionately affected by global climate change. City planners are working on protecting their city from the natural disasters that will occur. Our young and brilliant entrepreneur friend Gabi is part of the solution. She launched Verde Urbano, a company leveraging ecological architecture, to ensure the wellbeing of its city.

THE START OF THE SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP MOVEMENT

As socially innovative as Medellin is, its social entrepreneurship scene is surprisingly small.
Camilo Ruiz, serial entrepreneur and founder of Corpo Emprende explained us the situation in his city.
The main challenge comes from the lack of definition of social entrepreneurship. It is a worldwide challenge, particularly in Medellin as it significantly curbs the growth of the movement.

For those who are still unsure about the definition of a social enterprise, let us enlighten you. There are basically 2 types of “social companies”.

First, there is the Yunus definition of a social enterprise that is actually called social business. This definition is very clear and precise: A business created and designed to address a social problem that is financially self-sustainable and reinvests its realized profits in the business itself (or uses the profits to start other social businesses), with the aim of increasing social impact.

Then there is a wider definition of a social enterprise that is more ambiguous and much more flexible. That is the one that Dare2Impact uses: a business that addresses a social problem and is financially self-sustainable or looking to be but has no financial restrictions.

The common characteristic is that social enterprises and social businesses are both for profit!
Now what is the challenge in Medellin? Very few people know what social enterprises are and most people confuse them with non profits.
There are however many entrepreneurs that are working to have a social impact in the city. Camilo thus tried to leverage this gap by launching an Impact Hub in Medellin to help these entrepreneurs.

Camilo marketed his hub as a co-working space dedicated to social entrepreneurs. However the words “social entrepreneurs” attracted the wrong clients: NGOs. The actual social entrepreneurs he was looking for were  not interested in the Hub. They did not want to be labelled as “social entrepreneurs” because to them it meant being labelled as non-profit businesses.

Camilo Ruiz Vargas

Camilo’s failure with the impact hub is only representative of the challenge faced by social entrepreneurs in Medellin. Without a clear definition and understanding of what social entrepreneurship is, it is almost impossible to build adequate institution and put in place policies that would promote the development of the movement.

The lack of support for the movement makes it really hard for it to thrive.

There is good news though. Camilo is working on changing the situation by bridging the gap between actors of social change and the government to create institutions to promote social entrepreneurship. He also launched an incubator for social entrepreneurs Corpo Emprende in order to actively develop the movement.

WHAT ABOUT IMPACT MEASUREMENT?

Camilo recognizes the necessity for impact measurement in order to develop the social entrepreneurship movement. “Impact measurement is interesting for investment purposes – he said – Most importantly social impact measurement is crucial as social enterprises exist to solve a problem, to make a change in a community, to change people behaviors. The only way to know if you are actually making this change is by measuring it, otherwise you just end up doing something that is theoretically good”.

Camilo believes impact measurement should be integrated in the business plan, at the very start of a venture. Social entrepreneurs should start their business by thinking about the change they want to make and how to measure it.
In Medellin, we need to start by explaining the importance of measuring the impact is the first step to take. Bringing concrete plans and methodologies to measure it comes next.

As we have learned in France, Canada and Haiti, it is expensive and/or time consuming to measure impact. Social entrepreneurs don’t have the resources to do it. They first need to understand what to measure and then find cost effective ways to measure it.

This confirms the need for integration of social impact measurement into the operations of social companies. Dare2Impact has been able to do so on a case by case basis so far. We are working hard on developing common tools and methodologies that allow all social entrepreneurs to go through the entire process by themselves.

Stay tuned, the next Impact Sunday is coming in two weeks, live from Lima!

Impactly yours,

Mel & Gab