Ashoka launched the Full Economic Citizenship (FEC) initiative to find new solutions for the two-thirds of the world living in poverty. FEC’s goal is for all of the world’s citizens to have the ability and choice to participate in local and global economies—in other words, to be full economic citizens.

Today over 2 billion citizens in the world don’t have access to any type of financial services, one billion still live in inadequate housing, 2 billion lack electrical power, and 100 million school-age children do not attend primary school. To them and their families, reaching full economic citizenship would mean having access to improved products and services that meet their basic needs, increasing the value of their local production, and being able to leverage their often illiquid assets to gain new opportunities.

Of our 1,700 Fellows, Ashoka has launched over 1,000 social entrepreneurs working to develop solutions for low-income citizens around the world. Together with our community of social entrepreneurs, FEC distills and spreads their insights, building pathways to economic development for low-income communities.

In order to spread full economic citizenship globally, FEC is harnessing the innovations of Ashoka Fellows in three ways: serving low income communities through Hybrid Value Chain™, transforming small producers’ economies through Classes of Small Producers™, and leveraging assets of the poor through The Wealth of the Poor™.

Click here for more information on FEC's social and bussiness innovations.