The Institute for Social Entrepreneurship in Asia (ISEA), a regional network promoting social entrepreneurship for sustainable development, holds the Social Enterprise Advocacy and Leveraging (SEAL) Conference and Regional Assembly every two to three years. This is to define an agenda and contribution of the social enterprise sector in resolving key development issues and concerns in the region and beyond.
The 4th SEAL Conference shall be held on 22-23 March 2023 in Bangkok Thailand (blended-format) with the theme "Social Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Partnerships: Towards Inclusive Recovery and Accelerating the Sustainable Development Goals”. The conference aims to:
1. Provide a venue for learning and dialogue among and between the social enterprise sector, civil society, government, the corporate sector and multilateral agencies about innovations and partnerships in pursuit of social entrepreneurship as a pathway towards inclusive recovery, building back fairer and accelerating the achievement of the SDGs;
2. Launch the Technological Innovations for Sustainable Development Platform focused on seeding and enabling community networks to bridge the digital divide;
3. Showcase and provide a venue for learning exchange on significant practices of practitioners and government agencies that have adopted or supported the Benchmarks and Guidelines for Transformational Partnerships and Women's Economic Empowerment in Agricultural Value Chains
4. Engage stakeholders on the Catalyzing Recovery of Social and Community Enterprises for Transformation (CRESCENT) Asia-Pacific initiative.
The conference aims to bring together representatives from leading social enterprises and social enterprise resource institutions, civil society, businesses and governments engaged and interested in:
• Assisting and working with the social enterprise sector to ensure inclusive recovery from COVID-19;
• Enabling social entrepreneurship and cross-sectoral partnerships as a means of implementation to build back fairer and accelerate achievement of the SDGs.
The conference is organized as a pre-event to the 10th Asia-Pacific Forum on Sustainable Development (APFSD), with the theme of "Accelerating the recovery from COVID-19 and the full implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development at all levels". This is organized by ISEA, ESCAP, and Catalyst 2030, with the support of APRCEM-Social and Community Enterprise Constituency, Association of Progressive Communications, Oxfam in Asia, Embassy of Sweden in Bangkok, and Social Enterprise Thailand.
The conference will be followed by field visits showcasing social enterprise initiatives towards inclusive recovery and building back fairer in Thailand (co-organized by SE Thailand) and the ISEA Regional Assembly on 24 March 2023.