The Skoll Centre

The global food system is increasingly complex and interdependent. Global food demand is projected to increase by more than 50% from 2010 to 2050, while rising global temperatures and increasingly frequent extreme weather events pose significant challenges to crop yields and food production, exacerbating pressure on the food system. 

570 million smallholder farmers sit at the core of this complex and interdependent system: they feed one third of the world’s population, yet they are themselves food insecure and particularly vulnerable to the adverse impacts of climate change. Putting these stakeholders at the heart of transformational change in the global food system is essential for a just transition. But how can we feed a rapidly growing population in a sustainable, healthy, and just manner? No single entity or stakeholder can do this alone. We need diverse action and collective effort from stakeholders spanning multiple sectors – from smallholder farmers to multinational food companies, consumers, and everyone in between. 

This report is a collaboration between the Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship and the Oxford Martin School Programme on the Future of Food, and supported by Nestlé.

As part of a broader trend toward innovation with more direct social impact, new social entrepreneurial ventures and start-ups have proliferated in recent years. Social entrepreneurs set out to develop and fund solutions that directly address social issues with impact on communities, societies, and the world at large while trying to generate revenue by operating within the confines of the market economy.  

By addressing issues affecting people and places often overlooked by business and government due to misaligned incentives or priorities, social entrepreneurship holds immense potential to generate above-average social returns through the promotion of innovation in the areas that need it most. Traditional innovation models and ecosystem studies have thus far turned a blind eye to these forms of socially motivated, community-based, and localized innovation models. As a result, innovation policy has not been optimally designed to support social entrepreneurship.  

To address these issues, this 2024 edition of the Global Innovation Index (GII), with in-depth case studies and contributions by experts, puts the spotlight on social entrepreneurship, addressing three critical questions for unleashing the potential of this promising new phenomenon: What is the state of social entrepreneurship globally? How do social enterprises create positive impact, and what role does innovation play? How can policy help to unlock the promise of social entrepreneurship?

This chapter is part of the World Intellectual Property Organization’s Global Innovation Index 2024 and is jointly authored by Marya Besharov, Professor of Organisations and Impact and Skoll Centre Academic Director, Saïd Business School, University of Oxford, Kevin Miner, Saïd Business School, University of Oxford with Anmol Kaur Grewal and Sacha Wunsch-Vincent from the World Intellectual Property Organization.  

More than ever before, people understand that climate change and biodiversity loss threaten the places, people, and things we love. And they care – deeply. But change isn’t happening at the speed and scale required, leading to feelings of powerlessness and despair. Wider systemic changes seem too slow, and our individual contributions feel too insignificant. And yet, things are shifting, because our individual contributions do matter. How can we rapidly increase the number of people closing the gap between caring and acting so those shifts accelerate?

The Climate Changemaker Playbook is a collection of strategies and tactics for how to move people from caring, which so many do, to acting. With a foreword by Christiana Figueres and case studies of five leading social entrepreneurs who have been activating others around the world, this playbook is for anyone who has wondered how they get the people around them to act.

This playbook is a collaboration between the Skoll Centre and Ashoka.