The Center of the Governance of Change (CGC) at IE University is seeking contributions from established or promising younger researchers for its incoming report on The Rise of the Fourth Sector in Ibero-America.

This report is part of a broader international project supported by the Ibero-American General Secretariat (SEGIB), the United Nations Development Programme for Latin America (UNDP), and the World Economic Forum (WEF), that seeks to facilitate the creation of a more prosperous, socially fair and environmentally sustainable economy by advancing the development of a new regulatory ecosystem for benefit-driven enterprises.

Each contribution will be compensated with a $4,000 USD honorarium (withholding tax may apply depending of the researcher’s country), and it is compatible with other fellowships and academic/non-academic appointments.

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Over the past two decades, the boundaries between the public, private, and non-profit sectors have been blurring as many pioneering organizations have started to blend social and environmental aims with business approaches. These ‘hybrid’ organizations come in a wide variety of forms (B Corporations, Social and Sustainable Enterprises, Civic Ventures, Cooperatives, etc.), but they all share the purpose of achieving financial success while minimizing the negative externalities and delivering strong social and environmental benefits. This business model makes these enterprises one of the best ways that today’s society has to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030 and solve some of the most pressing challenges of our time.

Nevertheless, this transformation will not happen without support. In order to thrive and succeed, for-benefit enterprises are going to need a new and cohesive supportive ecosystem that adapts to their unique characteristics and helps them scale without making compromises that dilute their original values and impact objectives. This is what we call the Fourth Sector, a new economic and regulatory space at the intersection of the three traditional sectors –public, private and non-profit.