Since 2006 Cesvi has inaugurated a new sector of intervention: social business as it was defined by Muhammad Yunus. According to Cesvi, social business means social entrepreneurship, microcredit, small and medium business, economic and social development in urban and rural areas.
Social business initiatives represent a border between public and private sectors and a new way in economic and social cooperation with developing countries based on solidarity. Social business activities implemented by Cesvi are financially sustainable: they operate according to market logic and pursue social progress in addition to profit contributing to life quality improvement and sustainable development of target areas.

This innovative activity exploits market forces to generate benefits for disadvantaged social sectors, stimulating the involvement of private actors to transform social problems in development opportunities. Social business offers a new approach to transform passive welfare recipients in active citizens, contributing to achieve full and productive employment and decent work for all, including women and young people, as target of the Millennium Development Goal n. 1 that aims to eradicate extreme poverty. Economic initiatives, promoted by Cesvi, contribute to create new jobs in urban areas, encouraging social inclusion of marginalised young people in addition to consolidate jobs in rural areas and strengthen productive chains of rural communities excluded from the market. Cesvi social business can be cooperatives, micro-enterprises and insurance patterns depending on context and beneficiaries level of vulnerability. They always arises from market researches and business plans that verify economic sustainability, competitiveness and efficiency of businesses.

Social sustainability is ensured by accurate recruitment of beneficiaries involved in the project carried out by transparent methods and in accordance with predetermined criteria: low income, insufficient education, fragmented domestic context, strong personal motivation and discriminations in job market access. In social business initiatives private sector plays a strategic role providing numerous opportunities of collaboration through a direct involvement of businessmen or creating a commercial partnership. Collaboration can also consist in technical consulting or donations to support beneficiaries’ training activities. That is why social business initiatives are not only based on solidarity but they develop mutual interest in business representing a new sort of economic and social cooperation.
Cesvi in partnership with local NGOs contribute to identification and financing of business initiatives in different phases:

• support to local partners to identify economic opportunities to link local development processes to the market;
•  assessment of local resources;
•  market research to define target sectors of the intervention;
•  identification and recruitment of beneficiaries;
• beneficiaries professional training to fill up the education gap when needed  (training courses are organised depending on market demand. They provide a competitive qualification in addition to psychological support in order to recover beneficiaries’ self-esteem and promote self- development.);
• support to production, transformation and marketing of rural products;
• strengthening of management structures of social business initiatives; 
•  financing for a new business activity or to expand an existing one;
•  financing or facilitation to get a loan, access to revolving funds, microfinance tools and insurance patterns;
• promotion of beneficiaries’ employ in new social business or private business. Motivation for the creation of autonomous business (micro-enterprises);
• monitoring of beneficiaries in first years of working experience in order to support their professional growth;
• monitoring of businesses for the return of funds.

Since 2008 Cesvi teams up with the Università Cattolica Milano and with ALTIS-Postgraduate School Business & Society to define a social business policy starting from a descriptive model of the activities in the field. ALTIS is an international research and education centre for the study and promotion of a responsible and competitive business culture. It was founded in 2005 (and it is now directed) by Prof. Mario Molteni, Professor of Business Administration and Corporate Strategy at the Univesità Cattolica.

For more information about ALTIS's researches download the paper: WISEs (Work Integration Social Enteprise) in developing countries >> .pdf format