Event brief
We are delighted to welcome you to the 11th SOCIAL BUSINESS DAY hosted by Nobel Laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus to be held from June 28 - July 2, 2021. This annual international event, organized by the Yunus Centre, is a family gathering of all social business practitioners, academics, promoters, and friends. It provides a platform which brings all of us together to engage in dialogue, exchange ideas and gain energy from one another by inspiring each other.
Every year, Social Business Day is organized to discuss and celebrate the groundbreaking idea of social business. We have an exciting line up of Plenary Sessions covering the key areas of social business where experts of related fields will come together to provide insights and updates. This event also creates an opportunity for participants to engage in various interactive panel sessions and workshops to broaden their understanding in their specific areas of interest.
This year, most of the sessions will take place virtually with some in-person programs to be held in Kampala, Uganda, thus offering various wonderful events virtually for all participants to attend from any corner of the world!
The theme of this year’s SOCIAL BUSINESS DAY is “No Going Back”. This year’s event will offer various new perspectives as it will take place over five days instead of two, for the very first time. This event marks the beginning of a new development in the social business arena.
The COVID-19 pandemic is raging around the world while we organise this event. But we cannot give up. This pandemic is all the more reason to mobilize all our energy to create a world of Three Zeros --- zero net carbon emissions, zero wealth concentration to end poverty, and zero unemployment by unleashing entrepreneurship in all. There is no going back to the suicidal path of increasing global warming, extreme concentration of wealth and the threat of massive unemployment.
We are happy to let you know that like previous years, during the event, in addition to our usual high powered plenary sessions and other presentations, we will hold Country Forums for countries and regions where the social business concept is in practical use. Country Forums will be devoted to sharing experiences, exploring potential, and analysing the actual practice of social businesses within each country, or group of countries. The discussion will take place in the language of that country, and will be headed by practitioners of these different countries.
A Social Business Academia Forum will be held on July 1, 2021, to engage the members of the academic community and students to review the ongoing academic activities around social business and conceptualize future academic directions. This will provide the opportunity to engage with academics from 90 Yunus Social Business Centres located in universities across 37 countries to interact with the broader community of social business practitioners and among themselves.
Due to the many challenges and opportunities presented by the COVID-19 pandemic, Nobel Laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus believes that there is “No Going Back.” We must embrace the various adversities and opportunities this pandemic has provided us with. This will also be a theme of one of the plenary sessions.
As many of you may already be aware, Yunus Centre recently organised the East Africa Social Business Forum focusing on Youth Entrepreneurship from April 10-11, 2021. In continuation of our focus on youth empowerment globally, we are launching a new initiative to create a global network of 3ZERO Clubs. “The 3ZERO Club” is an initiative towards achieving the vision of creating a world of three zeros — zero net carbon emissions, zero wealth concentration to end poverty, and zero unemployment by unleashing entrepreneurship in all. We will discuss the details of the 3ZERO Club during Social Business Day.
Professor Muhammad Yunus invites you to explore and make the commitment to the call of No Going Back. We look forward to seeing you on this special occasion.