Charities and foundations are moving rapidly into the development landscape previously dominated by government-run institutions such as the United Nations and the World Bank, the Financial Times reports.

While the government entities are still in the best position to respond to crises requiring a significant response, such as the global economic downturn, for-profit and nonprofit social enterprises can adopt more nimble and innovative approaches to particular problems in the developing world, the newspaper writes.

“Business and society have to go through this utterly profound management transformation to move away from a few people running everyone else,” said Bill Drayton, founder of the social-entrepreneurship organization Ashoka. “Because that model can’t function in a world with rapid change coming from all directions.”