Social Business supporting small-scaled seaweed cultivation in Southern Thailand, generating socio-economic benefits and fostering gender equality

Social businesses are non-loss, non-dividend companies solving social and environmental problems, contributing towards an economy-based selflessness rather than traditional economics. Yunus Foundation Thailand (YFT) has built a seaweed social business based in the La-Ngu district, Satun province, Southern Thailand, which works with 50 entrepreneurs, who are predominantly Muslim women. Based in 4 key villages of Gabang, Ban Tutaram, Ban Bu Boi and Ban Bor Ched Luk, these entrepreneurs have been trained to cultivate the green seaweed Caulerpa cornynephora. This study investigated the socio-economic benefits and gender equality supported by this seaweed social business using a mixed method approach using the Knowledge-Attitudes-Practices (KAP) survey approach and focus group discussions. The survey showed that the entrepreneurs prior to the work with YFT had no prior knowledge of seaweed farming, however, they typically had a ‘fair’ KAP score for business awareness and a ‘good’ score for their positive, collaborative and strong, entrepreneurial practices (>75%). The results also revealed that small-scale seaweed cultivation is having a substantial positive impact for local seaweed entrepreneurs in Southern Thailand. The seaweed social businesses generating income for poor rural coastal communities, fostering a strong community spirit and enabling women to create their own income and support their families through seaweed cultivation.