A pilot programme at Ashoka Ireland, the Ashoka Localizer is attracting a selection of the world's leading social entrepreneurs to Ireland, importing innovative solutions that will tackle some of the country's entrenched social challenges.
Our vision is a global society in which innovative solutions to social and environmental problems spread and scale rapidly – driven by a competitive demand-led dynamic and achieved by demonstrating how to do it.
Our mission is to develop blueprints for systematically importing social innovations, nation by nation, demonstrating the opportunity to Government and citizen sector leaders across the world to stimulate a demand driven competitive dynamic.
Learn more about Localizer Selection Process and Portfolio.
Many of the solutions to any nation’s social and environmental problems exist across the world but most don’t find their way in a timely fashion – this is true of any nation in the world, rendering the market for social and environmental innovations incomplete. Each new innovation consumes entrepreneurial and leadership capacity as well as financial resources, and yet, relevant innovations that have proven their effectiveness elsewhere in the world too often remain untapped.
Importing Proven Innovations
Importing proven innovations leverages knowledge and technologies developed elsewhere, enabling one to achieve goals with less leadership resources, at higher speed, a lower cost, and a higher probability of success. To solve social problems in a timely and cost effective manner, every city and nation should systematically seek out and import the most innovative ideas and institutions from around the world.
The need for the talent and ideas of the worlds leading social innovators is enormous, and yet demand remains low because this opportunity has not yet been fully appreciated. Nations that execute first and best will have access to the worlds leading social innovators and their ideas. There is no shortage of innovative ideas but the incentives and supports offered to social entrepreneurs to scale beyond regional or national boundaries are non existent by comparison to the corporate sector.
Think of the incentives and supports nations will provide to entice a Google or an Intel to relocate or expand. The supports/incentives required for social entrepreneurs to effectively scale their ideas and/or organisations include access to local networks, finance and strategic advice - an innovation brokerage. With the biggest social innovation pool in the world, Ashoka – the worlds association of social entrepreneurs, is well placed to demonstrate to civil society and Governments how to import social innovation.
