The British Council: Building Trust Internationally

Just six years ago, when I raised the question of funding international social enterprise initiatives with John Bird, there was little awareness of intiatives like ours in Russia and Ukraine. Soon after, The British Council began its own efforts around the time diplomatic relations between the UK and Russia had deteriorated. The British Council was at the centre of a row over espionage.  At the time, former Labour party leader Neil Kinnoch headed the British Council and his son was in the crosshairs, Labour Foreign Secretary David Miliband came to the rescue, as one would for one of their own.   

As they say in their About page on the Guardian website "The British Council creates international opportunities for the people of the UK and other countries and builds trust between them"

At first glance that might seem perfectly aligned with our own statements as a 'profit for purpose' business:

"Our social purpose is poverty relief and childcare reform in the former Soviet Union.  Core framework is straightforward: to build bridges of friendship based on common ground for the common good in the former Soviet bloc.  We firmly believe that this "soft power" approach to international relations is inevitably the only solid ground for establishing and building understanding, good will and peace.  We have therefore pursued that strategy from the beginning of P-CED.  In this regard we consider that Peace is our Business"

Our work in Ukraine began in 2002 and in 2006 following up on the 'Death Camps, For Children' story of Ukraine's insititutional childcare system, delivered our formal strategy paper on Microeconomic Development and Social Enterprise to government channels. In 2007, we took the rather radical step of publishing online with the help of our network of activists, to defend our IP from predatory oligarchs.

A 'Marshall Plan for Ukraine' Part 2 Center for Social Enterprise.  

it was from this point that we began seeking support, the British Council along with the FCO, who provide a significant amount of their funding were among those approached. We were later assured by the FCO that they and the British Embassy knew about us.

Thursday, 18 December 2008, 12:57
Dear Mr Mowatt

Thank you for your e-mail of 9 December. I am sorry that you have experienced difficulties in your previous contacts with the FCO. I can at least assure you that the Ukraine desk at the FCO, and our Embassy in Kyiv, are now aware about the activities of your organisation.

In February 2008, we contacted USAID copying to the Council on Foreign Relations and US Ambassador William Taylor. Taylor knew of our founder from his work for the Tomsk Regional Initiative. The East Europe Foundation was established in Ukraine  late in 2007 and had offered small grants for community focussed initiatives. We applied, to support the first of 400+ rehab centres we'd proposed and Ukraine's goverment had agreed to. After no response in 3 month we determined to gain their attention.

A response from USAID informed us that they had no budget for 'this group of retarded chidren'

Later in 2008, we'd shared the strategy paper online as an entry for the European Citizens Consultation.

In 2010, the work was introduced to the British Council formally in an application for partnership and to Erste Bank for their social business ideas competition.

Then silence, until we learned of the Social Enterprise intiative from the British Council featuring both USAID and Erste Bank as partners.

To emphasise the importance of trust, as a social enterprise supplier to the British Council we provide a resource scheduling product which records potentially sensitive visitor information. It's a matter of professional integrity that we can be trusted to preserve confidentiality.

"Can be build an ethical system based upon unethical behavior?" asked Terry Hallman, in a discussion about creating a social marketplace.  

Notably the British Council page describing social enterprise development in Ukraine has been removed but the archived page cannot so easily be erased. 

Take note that our proposal for a social enterprise development center opens with a definition of social enterprise in English whereas the definition provided by english 'expert' Christine Forrester is written in Ukrainian. Note also that resources listed include Social Enterprise UK, formerly the Social Enterprise Coalison, who told us that our work in Ukraine was beyond their current focus.

Clearly our stance on vulnerable children was something of an obstacle. Social enterprise needed to be seen as a successful strategy and taking on one of the most intractable social problems would have introduced risk.  I reflected on this in The Day We Become Silent About Things That Matter where I quote the Sunday Times

“We are all guilty of inaction. The violation of human rights in Ukraine is one of the pressing issues of our day. The suppression of freedom of speech, the control of the right of assembly, the oppressive use of the tax police and the blatant banditry of the road police however all pale into insignificance when compared to the wanton starvation of disabled children by those whom the state has empowered to protect them.“

We were all too familiar with suppression of freedom of speech, both in Ukraine where we dealt with a smear campaign and at home where The British Council is a sponsor of the Guardian soclal enterprise network.  A network whose editors will not feature our contribution in international social enterprise and censor me for commenting about it because I'm "going over old ground"

The 'Death Camps, For Children' report was based on an NGO visit to Torez in 2006

Through putting his life at risk for those most vulnerable Terry Hallman gained the trust of civic and human rights activists around him, paying tribute to his efforts on his death.

The network of organisations that the British Council belongs to includes the organisations of two of Ukraine's oligarchs described by Kyiv Post as Ukraine's Scrooges.

In spite of the conditions in Ukraine's orphanages, one of these oligarchs recently donated half a million dollars to Tony Blair's Faith Foundation , an organisation which apparently raises awareness of human rights and poverty issues.

That Bill Clinton's foundation was another recipient makes sense of the guests for the 'Ukrainian lunch' in 2009 when Sir Richard Branson insisted that business should focus more on social problems.  

"A philanthropic meeting point organised by the Victor Pinchuk Foundation in Davos during Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum, Davos Philanthropic Roundtable is aimed at developing philanthropy in Ukraine and increasing effectiveness of social projects. Main theme of the Second Davos Philanthropic Roundtable, entitled "From Philanthrocapitalism to Philanthrocrisis", was the impact of the economic crisis on philanthropy and perspectives of philanthropy development.

The key speakers at the event were the dignitaries who have significantly contributed to the development of a new model of philanthropy: 42nd President of the United States Bill Clinton; former
Prime-Minister Of Great Britain Tony Blair; businessman and philanthropist Richard Branson; Laureate of 2006 Nobel Peace Prize Muhammad Yunus; actor and founder of the One Foundation Jet Li, founder of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Bill Gates and also Victor Pinchuk, the Roundtable organiser, public leader and businessman. Matthew Bishop, Chief Business Editor of The Economist and co-author of the book "Philanthrocapitalism: How the Rich Can Save the World" acted as a moderator of the discussion."

Concluding observations

Thinking back to what Terry Hallman had told me about Russia, I remember he told me that he contacted William Taylor to complain about the number of US government agents operating under cover of the Tomsk Regional Initiative. It was causing distrust among locals. Taylor had replied to point out in so many words that it came with the territory.

The enthusiasm USAID had shown for the proposal for Crimea's Tatars was equally understandable from this perspective. He knew full well, that they's be falling over themselves to be on the ground near Russia's Black Sea Fleet.

Terry kept quiet about his efforts with physicists at Kharkiv National University. He knew that anything to do with nuclear research would bring a lot of unwelcome interest, irrespective of the peace building motive.

Terry's efforts to investigate the loss of an AC-130 gunship over Laos had led to the creation of Freedom Now, whose purpose was to help relatives discover the fate of MIA Vietnam servicemen. His father in law Charles Stoodart Rowley had been a hight ranking intel officer on board the AC-130 when it disappeared in 1970.

It's reasonable to consider that the UK had similar objectives and that any social innovation would not want to 'rock the boat' with entrenched economic interests. That might also explain why USAID took a back seat in this alliance given the widely held perception that US government had funded the Orange Revolution.

By our own admission we were mavericks who might well have exposed their intentions.