The theme of this
year’s annual event is “ No Going Back”. At the opening ceremony, Nobel Peace
Laureate Professor Yunus delivered a speech, where Professor Yunus stressed
that there is no going back to the path of rising wealth concentration and the
unemployment issues. The raging pandemic has paralyzed all activities but it
should not stop us from making a radical change. This pandemic is a critical
moment where it provides us with an opportunity to re-evaluate our actions and
build a better world. Towards the end of his speech, Professor Yunus made a
strong call to action for all youth, motivating them to create a world of 3
zeros - zero net carbon emission, zero wealth concentration in ending poverty,
and zero unemployment. This year’s event encompassed a lineup of series plenary
sessions to cover various topics on the role of social business in the context
of Pandemic, such as The Global Pharma Social Business and building a circular
economy: Waste Wise Partnership Global Launch.
Country Forums were
held on June 30th where experts of the related fields come together and gave
their insights into the actual practice of social business in its region.
In the Greater China Forum, three sessions were set up where experts from
Taiwan, Hong Kong and China discussed some of the pressing issues and put forth
solutions. The first session featured what methods or strategies utilized to
solve problems facing underprivileged groups. The second session focused on the
development of social business where Juno Wang, CEO of Foundation of Taiwan,
Shen-Yu, Hsieh, founder of Howsfood Social enterprise, Angela Cheng, Marketing
and Sales Manager of Dialogue in the Dark, participated to present the current
development on social business. On the third session, all of our YSBCs partners
( Yunus Social Business Center) were invited to share ongoing academic
activities around social business and conceptualize future academic directions
where panelists include Professor Chieh-Yu Lin Director, YSBC, from Chang Jung
Christina University, Professor Kung-Hsiung Chang Director, YSBC from National
Ping Tung University of Science &Technology, Professor Ying-Shing Lin
Director, YSBC from National Kaohsiung University of Science and
Technology(NKUST), Professor Shong-Iee Su, Director, YSBC from Soochow
University , Professor, Tzu-Lan Tseng, Assistant professor from College of
Management at National Taipei University of Business, Professor Ming-Yen Lee,
CEO, YSBC, from Chung Yuan Christian University, Professor Mei Jane Teng,
Director, YSBC, from National Chin-Yi University of Technology,
Social Business Academic Forum was held on July 1st, where Juno Wang, CEO of the Foundation for Yunus Social Business Taiwan, took part to speak as panelist on plenary session covering the topics on the role of YSBC as the affiliating organization to launch 3 zero club. Juno Wang expressed the excitement about the launch of 3 zero club and conceptualized the integration of three zero clubs into college-ready program in which YSBCs function as support organizations to help facilitate open discussions. Juno Wang also anticipated that 3 zero clubs can bridge pathways for student connect resources from major corporations and hopefully by planting social business seeds in the young generation’s mind, 3 zero clubs can help students learn values of social business and broaden youth’s perspectives on social business.
As a wealth gap is growing rapidly at global level, Taiwan also faces a similar situation where currently, 600,000 people were considered low income households. Therefore, at the foundation, we follow Professor’s Yunus philosophy in promoting the concept of social business and microloan in fight against poverty. We aim to improve the livelihood of people who lack access to capital through Grameen style group lending approach. In addition, we have also set up social venture fund to finance various social business projects. In the future, Foundation for Yunus Social Business will continuously embrace Professor Yunus’s vision of putting poverty in museum and dedicate itself to promoting social business towards building a world of three Zeros.
