| Abstract: |
Increasing evidence shows that investing in social sector supply, service, and value chains has exponentially stronger development impact than investments in other sectors. There are often severely lacking social services such as child care, elder care, health care delivery, prescription drug distribution, home schooling, and private sector training. These areas serve people (even the poorest people) who are willing to pay for or make contributions towards the overall costs. Weak social systems are, as Elinor Ostrom describes them, "collective action problems" where a common pool of resources is needed with "polycentric small units nested in larger systems," i.e., within markets for social good there are needs for state-sponsored social systems, supporting services delivery enterprises, entrepreneurs who identify gaps and fill them through charity or investment, and workforce agencies and businesses that provide people with the skills needed to expand access, affordability, and employment in social sectors. (Contains 8 endnotes.) [For "Taking Workforce Initiatives to Scale: Workforce Initiatives Discussion Paper #2," see ED520198.] |