Social Business

Socially responsible enterprises – providing aid against poverty through professional training and creating a means to earn a living for the needy

Combating extreme poverty and hunger are top Millennium Development Goals. Over one billion people still live on less than one US dollar a day. An unbearable state of affairs that has to be improved by 2015.
The Siemens Stiftung makes a contribution to the achievement of this goal. The foundation of socially responsible enterprises offers poor people perspectives to determine their own lives and thus secure a livelihood.

Socially responsible enterprises are a decisive means for the development of society as a whole: they give the poor a means with which to earn a living and thereby guarantee sustainable aid to self-help. Professional training plays a key role here in strengthening people’s independence and self-responsibility.

These socially responsible enterprises concentrate primarily on solving social or ecological problems. They make use of market-based methods, implement solutions in a systematic and targeted manner and use innovative funding and corporate models. The organizations support themselves economically, skim off no profit or reinvest any profit in charitable causes.

Together with cooperation partners the Siemens Stiftung is committed to founding socially responsible enterprises in developing countries. In terms of their content these enterprises are geared to our core themes of education, water and health. The use of simple technologies also forms part of these enterprises.

Pilot projects are in the pipeline for 2010. Further information to follow shortly.