In Social Procurement, European Social Enterprise Monitor, EU Policy, Funding, Research, Skills for Social Entrepreneurship, Social Enterprise Support

Details

Intermediary Organisation: European Commission

Year: 2022

Subject

For the first time, ESEM has been run in Latvia – we see it as an important step in creating evidence-based policies. The data was gathered by the Social Entrepreneurship Association of Latvia with the support of the Ministry of Welfare, Social Entrepreneurship Accelerator New Door, and Reach for Change Latvia.

Abstract

In the mid-2000s, the term “social entrepreneurship” emerged in Latvia and was included in national strategic planning documents as one of the instruments to address social problems. Social entrepreneurship has been developing more actively since 2015 when the Social Entrepreneurship Association of Latvia was established. However, this type of entrepreneurship is still relatively new in Latvia, resulting in a lack of public awareness of social entrepreneurship and its role in society, as well as a lack of understanding and knowledge about social entrepreneurship among social enterprises themselves and measuring its impact. 1 Social enterprise law in Latvia came into force on the 1st of April, 2018. The strong involvement of social entrepreneurship ecosystem actors in long discussions with the main focus on defining the sector for many years resulted in a legal framework dedicated to social enterprises.