As part of its hugely ambitious Vision 2030 plan, Saudi Arabia says it plans "to raise the non-profit sector’s contribution to GDP from less than 1 per cent to 5 per cent" over the next 13 years.
The government, Riyadh has stated, "will encourage the non-profit sector to apply proper governance standards, facilitate high quality training to staff and promote a culture of volunteering and full-time careers in the sector" – as part of its push to tackle unemployment through this hitherto under-utilised avenue. How to implement the plan is more complex.
The Vision 2030 transcript splits its forward-planning ecosystem into the traditional three main sectors: the government; the private sector; and the non-profit sector. Foundations, cultural groups and health clubs, for instance, are also referred to within this third space, indicating that all organisations that have any influence in benefiting societal or environmental well-being are to be involved, including those that do not have a purely profitmaking agenda.
The key idea, suggests Asya Alashaikh, the chief executive of Tamkeen Holdings (formerly TamkeenCSR), is for the non-profit sector to step up and contribute more by playing a role in tackling the very real issues the country is facing, such as health care, education, employability, youth character development and special needs. Also included is improving transparency and corporate sustainability, as is the case, says Ms Alashaikh’s, with her company, which works with clients to develop the principles of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and sustainability into their core strategies.
Non-profit is a major plank of the vision. "The government in Saudi Arabia, in its Vision 2030, articulates clear targets for the development of non-profit organisations," Ahmad Telfah, the chief economist at Riyad Bank tells The National. "Currently there are about 1,000 non-profit organisations in the kingdom – less than 10 per cent of them are seen as contributing to the long-term growth of the country. The government’s objective is to improve the performance, efficiency and transparency of non-profit organisations to increase their benefit for GDP.
"The government is currently in a process to adopt different initiatives to increase the impact of non-profit organisations in economic activities," Mr Telfah says. The ability for organisations to now gain a licence to operate as a non-profit has also opened up more opportunities for entrepreneurial creativity. While traditional foundations, such as the King Khalid Foundation, continue their work on the ground, social enterprises are also dotting the landscape now. The wheels were set in motion after the Shura Council, similar to a parliament, passed a law paving the way for civil society organisations to operate in the kingdom at the end of 2015.
"The approval of this law is a significant milestone for the country, especially those who were trying to serve as the third sector," says Ms Alashaikh, who counts her company as among this group. She estimates that since November 2015, when the cabinet approved the law, several hundred non-profit organisations or social interest groups have sprung up, encouraged by the new legislation. Ms Alashaikh also served as a consultant to the Shura Council, from 2010 to 2014 – before women officially became a part of the consultative body. For the past decade she has been working for sustainable development in the kingdom and now plans to register her firm’s Tamkeen Foundation as a non-profit.

Source: The National