Social entrepreneurship as a human rights based approach to development and poverty reduction : a theoretical analysis on its sustainability

Abstract

Social entrepreneurship is receiving increasing attention at a global scale in the recent years. Many governments, international organisations, and NGOs view it as an effective and a sustainable strategy for development, especially in the area of poverty reduction. In the current international development agenda, human rights based approach has become a key word as violation of human rights is identified as the root cause to underdevelopment and poverty. However, most of researches on social entrepreneurship are made in the areas of business economic studies, and the current academic literature does not provide studies on social entrepreneurship and human rights. Through theoretical analysis, this study closely examines the definition of social entrepreneurship, its link to human rights, and its sustainability as a human rights based approach to development and poverty reduction. The study finds that social enterprises have a strong link with human rights since they start with recognising human rights violations and operate to enhance those rights. Even though there are some issues, there is a great potential for social entrepreneurship to become a human rights based approach strategy to development and poverty reduction in the future.