SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT: A PARADIGM OF SOCIAL WORK INTERVENTION DURING THE COVID-19 CRISIS

Abstract

Social entrepreneurship (S.E.) is a strategic pathway for sustainable development. During the COVID-19 Pandemic, S.E. played a crucial role in managing the crisis and worked as a vehicle toward sustainable development by exercising its potential through large-scale innovations and creativity. During the Pandemic emergency, social entrepreneurs immensely contributed to deploying sustainability innovations in addressing the most pressing social needs worldwide. However, S.E. emerged as the new paradigm of social work intervention with many innovations and inclusiveness. Through this paper, the authors have tried to discuss the multifaceted dimensions of interventions through sustainable livelihood, i.e., creating livelihood promotions, inventions, social value creations, inclusiveness, and sustainable growth, which provided new directions towards sustainable solutions. During the COVID-19 Pandemic, when medical science was engaged in finding the antidotes of the CORONA virus, social entrepreneurs in all corners found social entrepreneurship as a possible antidote to the emerged sustainable development challenges. They have worked as changemakers through small and large-scale interventions, impacting sustain social values while actively contributing toward socio-economic and environmental sustainability. In the social sector, social entrepreneurs always played a dynamic role in engaging in the process of value creation through innovations, adaptations, and learning. Especially in the pandemic emergency, they have done a remarkable job of identifying the unmet needs of the people and have come up with meaningful products to market as fast as possible. They have become apparent as social sustainability pillars of sustainable development with various potential characteristics highlighted in this paper. KEY WORDS: Entrepreneurship, sustainability, development, Innovations, inclusiveness