On January 24 and 25 a representation of our partners from Social Impact attended to the world's largest conference/fair for agricuture and local development, the "Internationale Grüne Woche" (in Eng: Berlin International Green Week). There, the German Federal Ministry for Agriculture held a two-day conference on local development and rural areas. Among others, they went to sessions on social innovation in rural areas.
"Berlin International Green Week" is an important international trade fair for processors and marketers in agriculture, horticulture and various food industries.
Our German project partners participated in a related conference "Zukunftsforum Ländliche Entwicklung" on rural and regional development. In particular, Social Impact's Jörg Fürstenberger served on a panel regarding the financing of social innovation projects in rural areas. His conclusion: Social entrepreneurs should not only rely on state and philantropic funding opportunities, but also use market-related funding to make their projects more (self-)sustainable.
