A legal formula is needed to register social enterprises in Lebanon

In cooperation with a number of partners and with financial support from UNESCO, digital opportunity trust, DOT Lebanon, launched last Friday the so-called ‘social entrepreneurship in Lebanon Map’. The project seeks to create tools to serve social aims which abide by two clear conditions, firstly: the social aim should be the primary mission of the subject company, and secondly, that the company has a business model that allows it to reach financial autonomy, as said Aline Mayard on Wamda (http://bit.ly/2g8RefG). The interactive map presents information on the environmental system of this field of business in terms of the operating companies, (65 companies in total), their regional distribution and what they do, as well as the institutions that provide theoretical and technical support, up to financing (185 supporting institutions). Social enterprises are geographically distributed as such: 68% in the capital, Beirut, 26% in Mount Lebanon and 2% in the Beqaa, North and the South. According to DOT, nearly 16 of these companies are registered as associations, 10 companies not registered, 2 registered as corporations, and one as a limited liability company. As for the supporting institutions, their social services are distributed across many sectors, topped by environment and energy sectors, followed by education, health, rural development, waste management, food security and unemployment. On this, regional director for DOT Middle East, Marianne Bitar Karam, explained that social entrepreneurship in Lebanon has emerged widely, with ‘Souk el Tayyib’ and Arc en Ciel coming in the lead, noting that the latter while legally registered as an association, is not registered as a social commercial business. To note, the official website for the entrepreneurship map will be launched in a week. In its coverage of subject, Al Akbar daily pointed out to the main dilemma facing social entrepreneurship model supporters which is resolving the title, ‘a company or association’. Karam explained to Al Akhbar that social companies generate revenues that could be distributed among stakeholders or could be invested in research and development aims. But, while associations do not have the right to generate revenues, the prime work of the company is provision of the social service, Karam explained. She called for a compromise to this legal quandary through the creation of a legal formula that gives social enterprises access for funding. The formula that social entrepreneurship model backers are promoting is one will allow social commercial businesses to access two key sources of funding: loans (which associations cannot access) and aids provided by donors (which companies cannot benefit from). (Al-Akhbar and L’Orient le Jour 19 November 2016)