GSIF09 SUMMARIES

Social Innovation Lab 3: SIP-LKYSPP, NUS: Impact Investments – From New Money to New Societies

Thursday, 1 October  

• Mugo Kibati • Suong-Hong Nguyen • Alvin Lim

Facilitated by • Durreen Shahnaz

  • The convergence of civil societies, public and private sector over the past 15-20 years on social responsibility has seen the emergence of a new entity—social enterprise. Impact investments (II), a subset of socially responsible investments, are becoming increasingly popular as people recognize how it is a tool that can combine social and financial returns.

  • Participants readily agreed that it is necessary to develop a measure for social returns, but remained divided as to which sector should shoulder the responsibility of creating a feasible benchmark based on tangibles.

  • The role of governments in promoting impact investments was viewed as integral, in directing social enterprises to ‘speak’ the language of the country—addressing social returns in fields that vary from nation to nation. Suggestions included initiatives to adjust the fiscal and legal landscape to encourage II, while the need for regulatory bodies to monitor financials and accountability was also recognized. In the communication of II, governments would go a long way in greasing the process by adopting a more active facilitating role, in contrast to the traditionally passive roles.

  • All discussion groups agreed on the need to enhance awareness of II amongst all relevant players, particularly investor groups, those that can vote with their investment dollars. A recurrent theme was the need to use multipliers (intermediaries, groups, forums) to reach out to all manner of players. Particularly, much potential was placed in the traditional business cycle players and traditional philanthropists.

  • Academic institutions could also teach the concept of II, integrating it as a lifelong theme for a new generation of students.

  • It was raised that the current climate, where IIs on business with sustainable models saw reliable returns of up to 6% despite the downturn, was particularly advantageous for spreading the word on IIs. Participants thought that it was important to ride this wave to raise confidence in social enterprises, and promote this source of funding that remains sought after by the large majority of social enterprises that still require adequate funding (the non-Grameens, and non-BRACs).

  • Rounding up, the discussion itself exemplified a manner of how communication should and can be leveraged to enhance and deliver the message on the power of IIs in creating social and financial returns.

Download GSIF09 Social Innovation Lab 3 - Summary.