Social Business for Poverty Alleviation and Social Inclusion

Micro-credit, which becomes widely used as a measure for poverty alleviation in developing countries, is intended to provide funds to poor people who can not receive loans from banks and other formal institutions. Until now, by comparing micro credit in Bangladesh with that in Spain, our research group has shown that the activities of micro credits can help solve the problem of social exclusion at the same time. In other words, social inclusion is the real objective and micro credit serves as a means to build solidarity and include the poor into society.

Based on this recognition, we first show that poverty alleviation calls for a mechanism to form solidarity among poor people to promote social inclusion. Our case studies include poverty alleviation efforts for ethnic minority groups in Thailand and Vietnam. The mechanism for solving social problems through solidarity among people is indispensable in other forms of social business, such as organic agriculture aimed at environmental protection. In other words, these social business initiatives seek to solve problems that are difficult to be addressed by market forces through non-market solidarity approach.

The results of this research can be used to create a framework for social business-based poverty reduction.

- Noriatsu Matsui

- Rahman, Pk. Md. Motiur, Noriatsu Matsui and Ikemoto Yukio. Dynamics of Poverty in Rural Bangladesh: Springer, 2013.2.
- Matsui, Noriatsu and Yukio Ikemoto, eds. Solidarity Economy and Social Business:New Models for a New Society: Springer, 2015.
- Ikemoto, Yukio, Koji Domon and Tran Dinh Lam, eds. Small and Medium-sized Enterprises: The Way to Success: VNU-HCM Publishing House, 2014.6.