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Social enterprise news roundup – September 2026
Welcome to the monthly SEWF social enterprise news roundup. This edition traces the social enterprise sector’s progress through fresh declarations, strategies and cooperative frameworks, together with new financing schemes, research investment and changes within sector bodies. Read on for the latest developments from around the world.
Global
UN report highlights growing policy recognition for the social economy
Source: The Cooperator News
A new United Nations report finds that the social and solidarity economy, encompassing social enterprises, associations, mutuals, foundations and self-help groups alongside co-operatives, is receiving increased legal, policy and institutional attention worldwide. It highlights national measures in Brazil, Spain and elsewhere, along with the sector’s role in employment and economic output, including France’s social economy accounting for nearly 11 per cent of employee posts in 2023. The report says turning this political momentum into consistent implementation, financing and data collection remains a challenge going forward.
GIIN announces leadership transition as CEO Amit Bouri steps down
Source: The GIIN
The Global Impact Investing Network has announced that Co-Founder and CEO Amit Bouri will step down as part of a planned succession process, remaining in the role until the end of 2026 to support a smooth transition. Bouri cofounded the organisation in 2009 and has led it as CEO since 2015, during which time the GIIN has helped channel trillions of dollars into impact investing. The Board has engaged executive search firm Russell Reynolds Associates to identify his successor.
Africa
Africa Forward launches open letter seeking 1,000 signatures to back African-led social innovation
Source: Africa Forward LinkedIn
Africa Forward has launched an open letter urging donors, foundations, development agencies and African funders to invest more directly in social entrepreneurs across the continent, with a goal of gathering 1,000 signatures from innovators, funders and civil society leaders. The organisation says the campaign aims to shift decision-making power toward local institutions and will build momentum over the next nine months toward launching an Africa Forward Fund, with milestones planned at the UN General Assembly, the World Economic Forum in Davos in January 2027 and a WEF-linked event in Cape Town in April 2027.
Deputy minister urges bigger role for South Africa’s social and solidarity economy
Source: All Africa
At a virtual symposium on South Africa’s social and solidarity economy, Deputy Minister Mmapaseka Steve Letsike argued that cooperatives, community enterprises and similar organisations should play a larger role in tackling unemployment and inequality, while cautioning that such enterprises must not be used to mask poor governance or substitute for proper public services. She linked the country’s economic disparities to its history of colonialism and apartheid, cited recent unemployment figures including a youth unemployment rate above 47% and pointed to difficulties community enterprises face in accessing finance, markets and institutional support as a key barrier to growth.
Deputy minister calls on South African women entrepreneurs to pool resources through cooperatives
Source: The Cooperator News
South Africa’s Deputy Minister of Trade, Industry and Competition, Zuko Godlimpi, has encouraged women-led township businesses to form partnerships and cooperatives so they can buy stock in bulk and negotiate better prices with wholesalers. Speaking at a women’s empowerment workshop in Buffalo City attended by local officials, he pointed to bulk-purchasing practices used by foreign-owned spaza shops as a model township businesses could adopt and pointed participants toward existing government support programmes for small enterprises. The event coincided with findings from a 2026 Competition Commission report on the rural and township economy, which cites limited access to affordable stock and high operating costs among the obstacles facing independent retailers.
Asia
AVPN presses Asian billionaires to fund region’s own development
Source: Pioneers Post
At its 13th global conference, held for the first time in India, the philanthropy and impact investment network AVPN urged Asia’s wealthy individuals to take greater ownership of the region’s development funding, noting that outside sources currently cover 60% of it despite Asia having more than 1,000 billionaires. Alongside the conference, organisers announced a $1 billion climate investment pipeline in Maharashtra, several new funding partnerships and platforms and data showing a rise in both Indian corporate social responsibility spending and impact investment activity. Leaders also discussed how reduced US development funding and shifting donor priorities were affecting philanthropic organisations operating in Asia.
Seoul plans to double social enterprise work placements for young jobseekers
Source: ChosunBiz
South Korea’s government is reportedly considering plans to double the number of places on its youth work-experience scheme at social enterprises, from 500 this year to 1,000 in 2027, alongside a corresponding increase in the programme’s budget. The move follows unexpectedly high demand this year, with roughly 1,200 applicants for the original 500 spots and comes as youth unemployment has risen to its highest year-on-year increase since the pandemic era. The scheme offers young people short-term paid placements, training and mentoring at social enterprises.
South Korea passes first Asia-Pacific law framing the social and solidarity economy
Source: International Labour Organization
On 20 August 2026, South Korea’s National Assembly passed a new law creating a unified national structure for supporting the social and solidarity economy, replacing a previously fragmented system of separate programmes for cooperatives, social enterprises and related entities. The legislation, which took 13 years to pass after first being proposed in 2014, sets up a presidential oversight committee, a national policy centre and regional support centres, alongside new financing mechanisms and procurement preferences for qualifying organisations. It is described as the first framework law of its kind in the Asia-Pacific region, following similar national legislation already in place in countries such as France, Spain, Portugal, Mexico and Ecuador.
Europe
Report quantifies multinational spending with Europe’s social economy
Source: Telos
Telos has published a new report drawing on real spend data from businesses in its Buy Social Europe programme, finding €71.42 million in identified spend with 526 social economy suppliers across 11 European markets, contributing to 621 jobs and €6.43 million in reinvested profit. The analysis draws on software that has catalogued more than 3.6 million legal records of social economy organisations in Europe, and found that 94 supplier relationships exceeded €100,000, with 12 surpassing €1 million.
Scottish Government to develop new social economy strategy
Source: Scottish Government
The Scottish Government has committed to developing a new Social Economy Strategy as part of its Programme for Government 2026 to 2031, published 1 September 2026, alongside continued support for social enterprises, cooperatives and employee-owned businesses within its regional economic development plans. The commitment comes as the current ten-year Social Enterprise Strategy nears the end of its lifespan. Social Enterprise Scotland welcomed the move, but called for a clear timetable, evidence base and funding commitment to follow, along with stronger links to Community Wealth Building and procurement reform.
Ethex and Triodos Bank UK join forces on crowdfunding platform
Source: Triodos Bank UK
Ethex and Triodos Bank UK have announced a partnership under which all future Triodos crowdfunding investment offers will move to the Ethex platform, with existing Triodos Crowdfunding users transferring across in September 2026 before the Triodos platform closes. The two organisations, which have together raised over £330 million for more than 300 social and environmental impact projects, will continue to source investment opportunities independently, while Ethex takes on investor registry management, payments and account administration for the combined user base.
SENS launches interactive map of Switzerland’s social enterprise sector
Source: SENS
SENS, a Swiss network supporting social entrepreneurship, has published an online, filterable map of companies operating in the country’s social economy. The tool lets users search organisations against SENS’s criteria for a social enterprise, a stated social-impact purpose, reinvestment of profit surpluses towards that purpose, opportunities for stakeholder participation and a Swiss headquarters, among others and allows businesses to submit their own details for possible inclusion.
Latin America
Brazil advances national rollout of solidarity economy policy
Source: El Nuevo Diario
Brazil has strengthened its institutional framework for the social and solidarity economy, formalising its National Policy for the Solidarity Economy through Law No. 15.068/2024, known as the Paul Singer Law and establishing a National System (SINAES) to support it. The country’s National Secretariat for the Popular and Solidarity Economy (SENAES) is now coordinating a second national plan for the sector, covering 2026 to 2029, which was shaped by roughly 80 proposals adopted at a national conference on the solidarity economy in August 2025. Brazil is also cited as one of the countries, alongside Colombia and Spain, that helped establish an international coalition of governments supporting the sector.
Oceania
Australian philanthropy sees growing appetite for high-risk impact investment, new study finds
Source: Paul Ramsay Foundation
A study commissioned by the Paul Ramsay Foundation and produced by GoodWolf Partners estimates that Australian trusts and foundations have committed around $100 million to higher-risk, impact-oriented investments over the last three years, out of a philanthropic endowment pool worth roughly $50 billion. The research, which combined existing data, sector interviews and a survey of foundations, family offices, government funds and other market participants, found that three-quarters of respondents intend to expand their use of this kind of capital by 2029, with internal policy constraints cited as a bigger obstacle than a shortage of suitable investment opportunities. The report’s authors noted that their estimate excludes catalytic capital deployed by government, institutional and corporate actors, suggesting the overall market is larger than the figures capture.
