Social Entrepreneurship and National Human Resource Development: A Caribbean Perspective

Abstract

There is a need to promote social entrepreneurship in order to solve some of the complex problems facing the Caribbean (poverty, unemployment, crime and other serious issues). The situation in some Caribbean countries is dire. For example, with an average gross domestic product of less than $450 per head in 2002, which has not changed in real terms since the 1970s, Haiti remains the poorest country in the western hemisphere (United Nations, 2003). Over 60 per cent of the population lives in extreme poverty and the majority is completely out of reach of any governmental amenities and services (United Nations Development Programme [UNDP], 1999; United Nations, 2000; World Bank, 2001). Using a systems approach, this paper argues that social entrepreneurship can be used as a vehicle to promote national human resource development, which will assist in the alleviation of societal ills on the national level as well as throughout the Caribbean.