Ethiopias capital, Addis Ababa, will host Social Enterprise World Forum 2019 in the coming October. This will be the twelfth event of the yearly forum, and the first time ever to be hosted by a lower income country. The aim of the upcoming round of the forum is “to catalyze the area's young and dynamic social enterprise movement – both within Ethiopia and more widely across the continent.”

Social Enterprise World Forum (SEWF) was established in 2008 as a way of seeking means to advance social enterprise development globally. Edinburg hosted the inaugural event in 2008, and was also the host in 2018. The other hosts have been Melbourne, San Francisco, South Africa, Rio de Janeiro, Calgary, Seoul, Milan, Hong Kong and Christchurch. SEWF 2019 is now scheduled to be held in Addis Ababa from 23 to 25 October.

A 2017 British Council research estimates there are as many as 55,000 social enterprises in Ethiopia. Kibret Abebe, chair of Social Enterprise Ethiopia and founder of Tebita Ambulance, while expressing his delight that Ethiopia has won the bid to host the forum, stated that “harnessing [the] enormous population of entrepreneurs, innovators and talent is critical in order to spur the growth of social entrepreneurship globally, as it generates employment, reduces inequalities and addresses entrenched social problems.”

Sources: Pioneers Post; British Council