SEED's Executive Director, Helen Marquard, took part in September in a session entitled Social Entrepreneurship: A New Development Paradigm” at the 4th International Conference on Corporate Social Responsibility at Humboldt-University Berlin.

The questions to which a panel consisting of Helen, James Kyles (one of the 2009 SEED Winner with KOLCAFÉ in Tanzania), Professor Markus Beckmann from Lüneburg University, and Rainer Agster of Adelphi sought to provide answers were: Can social entrepreneurs offer solutions to societal problems, especially on the scale faced by many developing countries? How do market-based, bottom-up approaches of social entrepreneurs challenge traditional public development cooperation? Helen drew on some of SEED's recent findings from a soon-to-be-published longitudinal study of SEED winners which covers the barriers start-up social and environmental entrepreneurs face, and the enabling factors for success. She also talked about the African focus of the 2010 SEED Awards as part of the joint project with UNEP's Green Economy Initiative, funded largely by the EU.