Skip to content We talk endlessly about ecosystems, platforms, and scaling models.
But the most resilient economy I have witnessed, especially in fragile, underfunded, post crisis contexts, was never built on capital or code.
It was built on friends.
Not networking contacts.
Not transactional partnerships.
Friends who circulate trust, share risk, absorb shocks, and keep value moving when formal systems stall.
This is what I call the circular economy of friends.
Its invisible multiplier is the Barakah Effect.
What many dismiss as relationships is formally known as social capital. When measured, it consistently outperforms purely financial inputs.
Research across development economics and social finance shows:
None of this appears neatly in Excel.
But it shows up clearly in resilience, speed, and survival.
Barakah is not mystical. It is alignment.
Alignment between intention, ethics, and relationships.
When these align, systems behave differently:
Traditional metrics ask: What did we invest to get this result?
Barakah asks: What did we protect so this could happen?
In one economic empowerment pilot, two models were tested:
After twelve months, Model B showed:
Participants sourced clients, childcare, tools, and emotional support from within the circle. Dependency on the program itself decreased.
The value did not scale by adding money.
It scaled by strengthening the circle.
Across multiple post conflict contexts, funding moved faster not because of better platforms, but because of trust loops within the diaspora.
Someone vouched.
Someone absorbed early risk.
Someone else opened access.
Formal systems followed after trust was established.
Impact lesson: Trust often precedes infrastructure, not the other way around.
A well funded initiative introduced aggressive, individual output KPIs.
What happened next:
Within a year, performance declined. Not because people became less capable, but because the social glue dissolved.
The Barakah leaked out.
Economic empowerment fails when we design only for:
At EmpactUs, we design differently:
We do not just fund or train.
We strengthen circles and protect relational capital.
You cannot manufacture the circular economy of friends.
You can only:
The moment everything becomes transactional, Barakah exits quietly.
If your program feels like it is working beyond the model,
If results keep showing up through people, not processes,
You are not lucky.
You are already sitting inside a circular economy.
The real question is simple:
Will you protect it, or optimize it to death?
If you are building programs, platforms, or ecosystems and want to scale without breaking the social fabric, get in touch.
This is the work we do.
Board Director
Written by Hammam Elmasri, Board Director, EmpactUs
An expert in shifting philanthropy from short-term relief to sustainable systems, Mr. Hammam specializes in designing empowerment programs for women and communities in crisis. With a background spanning AI, Web3, and crisis response.
