Social Platform adopts its position on social innovation
On December 3, 2013 the Steering Group adopted Social Platform's position on social innovation. Considering that there is no common EU definition of social innovation, the paper intends to clarify what social innovation means for us, in order to ensure the well-being of people, and lists which criteria make a social innovation meaningful. Then it describes the role that civil society organisations can play throughout the whole process of social innovation and provides decision-makers with policy recommendations.
Social Platform defines a social innovation meaningful when most of the following criteria are met:
- novelty
- focus on unmet or inadequately met or new needs, by reinforcing the implementation of human rights
- assessment sharing
- informs policy development
- has potential for up-scaling
- participation and involvement of users, promotion and respect of users' rights
- participation and involvement of all relevant actors in a specific context
- goes beyond technological innovation for the benefit of users, is guided by criteria of public interest and promotes social progress
- has a bottom-up approach to innovation that starts at local level.
We are going to launch a debate on social innovation next year in a conference at the European Parliament that will be hosted by Heinz Becker MEP. We'll keep you posted.
