Ethical French knickers and global system change at Skoll 2013

My first trip to the Skoll World Forum began at the Oxford Jam – the forum’s fringe event ­– where a display of colourful French knickers strategically parked in the thoroughfare of visitors caught my eye. Such a striking centrepiece triggered a thought. Firstly, am I allowed to shop at a social innovation forum? And secondly – can social innovation be sexy?

I did shop, and was soon to find that beneath the allure of lace was a story of refugees and business working together to address fundamental societal problems.

Female refugees are responsible for the handiwork behind the array of brightly coloured lace, and they use the abundance of fabrics routinely left over at textile factories.

The ethical underwear line, pioneered by social entrepreneur Becky John, provides a gateway to employment for refugees struggling to find work and mitigates the social exclusion faced by many. The knickers also speak to the consumer loudly and clearly, aptly named Who Made Your Pants?

Becky gave an insight into her social business at an Oxford Jam workshop run by the RSA social entrepreneur network. “The children of refugees benefit from a mum with a job and a car,” she said. “Our employees tell us they have become less scared of white people. Others have said that before working with us they had a fear of hijabs,” she added.

When social innovation gets people to ask uncomfortable questions about their pants, it becomes a lot more serious than sexy. But from pants to the global change discussed at the opening plenary, glamour and conflicting realities continued side by side… On to the Skoll World Forum!

I took my seat among innovators, investors and academics in a packed out auditorium, teaming with mutual appreciation and congratulatory spirit. No longer the B-team of business, there is now an elite of super successful social entrepreneurs that can inspire others to follow in their footsteps.

The event kicked off with the rhythmic sounds of the first female Rwandan drummers, beating their fists in the face of gender stereotyping. Founder Jeff Skoll then gave the audience his top ten social changes before a panel of high-achieving social innovators took the stage.

Gro Brundtland, the former prime minister of Norway, Paul Farmer, the co-founder of Partners in Health, and Bill Strickland, President of the Manchester Bidwell Corporation, amicably discussed their experiences on everything from the importance of marrying someone you like to dealing with failure.

After the event, Strickland, whose organisation uses arts education to train at-risk and disadvantaged youth, gave me two personal tips that defy the glamorous attire that social innovation slips into for its special event.

“Here, there is a glamour about it, but there is a need to bring up the reality of the work, and we’ve the scars on our backs to show it,” he said.

Firstly, he told me: “Make certain that this is what you want to do for your life’s work so that your ideas and your heart are in the same place because that is what will sustain you when it gets difficult.”

Secondly: “Develop a network of relationships in your life within and outside the social innovation world and develop a rapport that can carry you into the future – because this stuff gets lonely. You need people around you that you can empathise with.”

This momentary sense of the isolation that remains an ongoing challenge for social innovators underlined the role of the next few days of sessions and ceremony in legitimising a sector previously undermined and providing a sense of mutual reinforcement in a change-seeking world.