UP, ISEA ink MOU for joint project on social enterprises

The University of the Philippines and Institute for Social Entrepreneurship are gearing up for a collaborative project to uplift social enterprises and advance social innovation. 

As the fifth Social Enterprise Advocacy and Leveraging Conference in Asia opened Aug. 13, UP and ISEA held a ceremonial signing of the memorandum of understanding for the Revving up Innovation and Social Entrepreneurship Initiatives Among UP Stakeholders or RISE UP Project.

UP President Angelo Jimenez, in his welcome remarks for the conference, underscored that social entrepreneurship “is not simply about creating businesses [but] about creating opportunities, enabling people to become self-sufficient, and giving communities the means to shape their own future.”

The multi-year project seeks to engage and mobilize UP students, faculty, and alumni in building a social enterprise ecosystem and in developing innovative solutions to reduce poverty and attain the Sustainable Development Goals by integrating social entrepreneurship into the university’s curricula, research, and startup support programs.

Among the initiatives of the project include the UP Social Innovation, Technopreneurship and Vesture Investments Office, which was formally launched during the conference.

“Innovation finds its highest purpose when it expands opportunity, strengthens communities, and advances human dignity,” Jimenez emphasized.

The MOU, which was signed and notarized May 6, is non-binding and serves as a framework for collaboration, and shall remain in effect for two years. Specific commitments between UP and ISEA regarding the project will be defined through a separate memorandum of agreement.

The fifth SEAL Asia Conference was held at the GT-Toyota Asian Center Auditorium in UP Diliman from Aug. 12 to 14. More than 60 leaders and 130 representatives of different social enterprises and resource institutions gathered for the conference.