By Olivia Allen
For the past three years, the Social Enterprise Institute (SEI), housed within the D’Amore-McKim School of Business has led students enrolled in ENTR 4506 “Advanced Studies in Social Entrepreneurship” to developing countries to study the role of social enterprises and other market-based solutions in alleviating poverty.
This year, SEI’s capstone students traveled to Kingston, Jamaica for the field practicum component of the course. SEI’s pilot field study to Jamaica was largely facilitated by Ali Matalon, and a native of Jamaica and the 2012 SEI Honors Scholar, who worked with SEI faculty and staff to design a program that provides students with insight into Jamaican social enterprises, lending institutions, and agricultural associations working to foster economic and social prosperity for Jamaicans in both rural and urban areas.
Matalon, a sophomore pursuing a dual degree in Political Science and Business Administration with a concentration in Social Entrepreneurship first became interested in social enterprise after enrolling in the “Voices of Development” honors seminar with Professor Dennis Shaughnessy. During the course, Matalon identified MicroCredit Limited Jamaica, a small microfinance institution as a worthy recipient for funding provided through SEI’s impact investment program. After performing due diligence and procuring matching donors to scale the impact of the funds, MCL Jamaica received a $15,000 investment. Since then, Matalon has worked to track the impact of the investment, most notably providing the lending capital for approximately 40 microcredit borrowers.
For her first co-op experience, Matalon returned home to apply SEI’s enterprise-based framework to Jamaica’s economic development. She currently serves as the Research and Product Analyst in the Strategic Services Department at the Development Bank of Jamaica, a corporation that is wholly owned by the Government of Jamaica with the mission of fostering economic growth and development of strategic sectors of the Jamaican economy.
The field practicum to Jamaica enabled Matalon to lead her peers in examining the pervasive poverty in Jamaica; a result of massive public debt exceeding 145% of the country’s GDP, an import-driven economy that stifles demand for locally grown goods, and widespread political divisiveness, unemployment, and violence.
As an alumna of the SEI’s field study program to the Dominican Republic in 2012, it proved difficult for Matalon to employ a critical lens to poverty alleviation in her own country. “It was easy for me to look at the loopholes in microfinance, the flaws of social enterprise and the general challenges of poverty alleviation in a critical way [in the Dominican Republic]. In Jamaica, that was very difficult,” said Matalon.
“While Jamaica is violent and corrupt place, it is also a haven. I still believe that the vast majority of Jamaicans are good, honest people and that must always be recognized when analyzing the negative aspects of a society” said Matalon. This sentiment was particularly evident in meeting the individuals propelling social change in Jamaica.
For example, St. Patrick’s Foundation, founded by Father Richard Albert (see his profile on CBS’s “60 Minutes” here), a community leader in Riverton City, serves approximately 8,000 Jamaicans through skills development training and the provision of health and educational services in one of the most impoverished slums in Jamaica. Within the agricultural sector, students witnessed farmers that were the beneficiaries of land, productivity increasing inputs, and ultimately, access to markets through Farm Up Jamaica, a start-up social enterprise.
Despite the social problems inherent in a post-colonial society that has yet to fully recover, Matalon and SEI’s capstone students departed Kingston with a sense of hope for the future after visiting effective social enterprises. “Our visit served to validate that both social and economic development in Jamaica can be achieved through enterprise-based solutions devoted to the country’s agricultural industries, political peace initiatives, and quality and access to all levels of education. Jamaica is a country truly rich in human talent, agricultural resources and potential to finally prosper in its post-colonial independence,” said Katherine Woolley, DMSB ’14.
Now, this year’s capstones students are tasked with disbursing up to $20,000 provided by the Barker Foundation and other donors to innovative social enterprises, using the additional insight into solutions to urban and rural poverty gleaned through site visits various social enterprises to inform their investment criteria. Adam Fishman, DMSB ’14 remarked, “We saw a lot of areas that need help and improvement, and hopefully our impact investment will allow one or more of the organizations we visited to get on a better path to sustainable social impact.” Following the precedent set by past capstone courses, the investment will be used to either start a new initiative to fund an unmet need or further support an organization’s existent program.
SEI students undoubtedly witnessed pervasive social issues while in Jamaica, but through the injection of capital in the most effective enterprise solutions, Jamaica’s social problems are in no way intractable. The Jamaican proverb “every mikkle mek a mukkle” meaning “every little thing adds up to make something greater” rings true for SEI students that aspire to make ensure that their investment, while small, will amount to meaningful and sustainable social impact.
