New allies: how INGOs and social entrepreneurs collaborate to transform global development

In this report, based on interviews, surveys and a range of events, Ashoka identified 14 actions that INGOs, social entrepreneurs, funders, and intermediaries can take to unlock the potential of these collaborations and systemic social innovation. 

Ashoka partners with transformative INGOs, UN Agencies and Funders who strive to make global development inclusive, localized, and co-created. We are on a mission to place system changing social entrepreneurs – proximate leaders – at the centre of the world´s global development effort.

This report calls attention to the largely untapped potential of collaborations between social entrepreneurs and big International non-governmental organizations(INGOs) to scale impact and drive systemic change. INGOs and social entrepreneurs bring unique and complementary value to their collaborations.

Partnerships between them can advance the international development sector toward more inclusive, localized, and co-created action. The report showcases successful collaborations, how partnership challenges can be overcome, and arange of recommendations for key actors in the ecosystem to catalyze more such partnerships.

What Social Entrepreneurs can do:

• ‍Continue to take the lead in experimenting and testing solutions. Social entrepreneurs iterate, learn, adapt, and bring solutions to market more quickly than INGOs can. The social entrepreneur’s commitment to experimentation, and experimentation’s ability to “de-risk” innovation are key assets for INGOs.  ‍
• Build relationships and networks with INGOs. Develop a better understanding of how INGOs operate and the challenges they face. Through INGOs, social entrepreneurs get access to (inter)national structures of power, and in turn, can become accountability partners for their work locally.  ‍
• Leverage expertise and knowledge of the local context. Social entrepreneurs have an unmatched expertise in the local contexts in which they work. They have experience building sustainable ventures with local stewardship. These are crucial assets they can offer in their partnerships.  

Read the full report here

Download the report here