Eden Strategy Institute supports Asian Social Innovation Award

For the third year running, Eden Strategy Institute is supporting the Asian Social Innovation Award organized in Hong Kong as a corporate partner.The Award is the first innovative social enterprise event in Asia to apply a simple and easy mechanism to engage the general public to participate in the discussion, and to deliver positive and concrete innovative solutions to tackle these problems

Social enterprises have brought great positive impact worldwide, and today account for 1% of the GDP in the UK. Social innovation powers these enterprises to satisfy the needs of the society where traditional models have been unable to.

In order to promote the culture of social innovation and enrich people’s knowledge on social issues, and to build a platform to encourage the sharing of ideas and experience among Asian cities, the Asia Social Innovation Award was born since 2008. This award aspires to be a pathway to develop the culture of social innovation across the region.

It involves a simple idea-generating competition that attracts the public to take part, and calls for level-zero social innovation ideas.

This year, the Award presents three items on its agenda of Urban Social Problems:

(i) Ageing Population. Fast-greying economic regions in Asia are going to be confronted with the challenges of rising ageing populations. Longevity and low birth rates are the main contributing factors of this phenomenon, and the elder dependency ratio in countries like Japan is already above 20%. To combat this inevitable situation, innovative ideas are needed especially in Hong Kong, Korea, and Singapore. This includes methods to cope with the pressure on healthcare services and long-term medical care required by elderly; the design of various community facilities and infrastructure; the requirements of tailored-design products and services for the elderly, etc. Innovative ideas are needed to help our society adapt to an ageing environment.

(ii) Poverty. The degree of urbanization and poverty in Asia varies across cities, but rising Gini coefficients make it evident that income gaps are widening. With the climbing inflation rate, access to basic necessities has become challenging for many. Income disparity also leads to problems of a working poor; elderly poor; difficulties for ethnic minorities and marginal youth to find jobs; housing and food problems; and the complications for those suffering from intergenerational poverty to receive quality education. Ways to alleviate poverty from the bottom-up are required.

(iii) Parenting. Parenting has become a hot topic in our society, creating social pressure to parents. Many parents are being called as either “Monster Parents” or “Unconcerned Parents”. “Monster parents”, in general, are aggressive and over-protective of their children. As a result, children are spoiled and these “Spoiled Children” create further social problems. They may have temper tantrums and are self-centered, whilst their parents do not know how set the right boundaries and to deal with such behavioral issues. On the other hand, there are also “Unconcerned Parents” whose children are being unattended and uncared for by their parents. Those parents are imperceptibly making their children isolate themselves from the world.

Invitations are now open to the public to submit their solutions for these issues, with 6 Oct 2011 23:59hrs as the submission deadline. Ideas will be judged on their originality, viability, and sustainability. There will be 3 winners from cities in Asia, and 3 winners from Hong Kong. Winners of each social issue category will be awarded HK2,000 and invited to the Social Enterprise Summit in Hong Kong from the 29 – 30 November. This year, there will also be a “Best Multimedia Award” for entries from Hong Kong.

To submit idea entries, please visit http://www.socialinnovationaward.asia/