Creating More Inclusive Global Markets Through Social Innovation
The gap between rich and poor continues to grow within Canada and around the globe. In fact, it is wider than it has been at any time in the last 30 years. Twenty per cent of people in the world live on less than $2 a day. On top of this, climate change and resource-intensive growth are causing severe strain on the world’s ecosystems, disproportionately affecting the world’s poorest people. Even with modern medical advances, 10 per cent of the world’s population is undernourished and 30,000 children die every day from preventable causes.
These trends and issues that are shaping our world have brought us to a tipping point and are causing problems that future generations will inherit. As Canada Research Chair in Social Enterprise and Inclusive Markets, Dr. Kevin McKague’s goal is to improve this situation, especially for the most vulnerable, by finding ways to make enterprises and markets more equitable and inclusive.
Where markets or businesses fail to create wealth, or where governments are ineffective at redistributing it, social enterprises and more inclusive markets can create value in ways that meet the needs of disadvantaged individuals and communities. McKague and his research team are focusing on how entrepreneurship and markets can be aligned with social values to work for the benefit of everyone, as well as for the environment.
Ultimately, McKague’s goal is to understand and explain the mechanisms through which social enterprises can create inclusive markets that will lead to social equity and global sustainability—and leave a positive legacy for the future.