Позитивные изменения. Том 3, № 4 (2023). Positive changes. Volume 3, Issue 4(2023) - Редакция журнала «Позитивные изменения»
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In general, what do you think is the role of global organizations such as GIIN?
Global organizations like GIIN, or the Global Steering Group (GSG) play the role of a ‘motherboard’ for the global impact investing community. They are designed to bring global stakeholders under one roof. By creating National Advisory Boards, leadership summits and hosting annual conferences, these organizations are trying to address internal regulations and legal issues in the countries, and are doing their best to improve the need of the hour — to act as an intermediary, enable equal access to the information, measure impact, increase pools of capital and provide access to reliable data, which is globally the biggest challenge.
The reason to celebrate for the impact community was the biggest takeaway of the declaration. All 83 paragraphs of the declaration were passed unanimously.
In September this year, India hosted another global event — the eighteenth summit of G20 Heads of State. Has it had an impact on the local impact investment market?
Absolutely! The event was actively covered by the international media. This was the first time India hosted the G20 summit and proudly covered around 200 meetings in more than 50 cities ahead of the G20 summit day.
To answer your question, the reason to celebrate for the impact community was the biggest takeaway of the declaration. All 83 paragraphs of the declaration were passed unanimously with a 100 percent consensus along with China and Russia in agreement.
Its main priorities were global political, economic and environmental challenges: the need for the fragile global economy to remain flexible and responsive to world events. It included deep concern around peace and prosperity for the planet, a strong sustainable and balanced inclusive growth, emphasizing India’s commitment to addressing both the global problems of the South and the problems of vulnerable groups within the country.
In combination, it definitely became a sensation. And this is, among other things, the recognition of the role of impact investment as an effective tool for solving socio-economic problems and achieving sustainable development goals. After all, SDGs are directly dependent on impact investment: if you want to close a socio-economic gap, you fill it with the help of impact investors.
In your opinion, do such events as the GIIN Impact Forum solve the issue of croector networking — when not only investors communicate with each other, but there is an opportunity for direct immediate communication between investors and social entrepreneurs capable of applying social technologies?
Definitely! Having been a part of an industry body catering to 1/5th of the global population, for almost 10 years, one has realized the immense importance, need and demand for such convenings, globally!
Such platforms allow impact leaders and their organizations with a common goal of ‘profit with purpose’ to come together and address challenges that are unresolved, educate themselves, address issues around accessing authentic data, share respective national and world governments’ policies and finally solve problems together.
Let me give an example of another recent summit that enabled the entire impact spectrum to communicate, organized by the Ministry of Cooperatives and SMEs of Indonesia with the support of the ASEAN Secretariat of the United Nations ESCAP and the OECD, in Bali. While India is not a part of the ASEAN nations, IIC was invited to represent the country at the forum. I spoke on inclusive businesses enabling knowledge exchange with the ASEAN nations and building a stronger inclusive world. The summit also organized targeted rapid networking sessions specially curated for the social entrepreneurs.
If you illustrate it as a spectrum, you will have the investors at one end, and social entrepreneurs on the other. To bridge the gap, such cross-sector networking is essential, enabling more opportunities.
IIC has lined up many such platforms for 2024. (1) In April, we are bringing the India Room to Singapore, replicating our GIIN effort. Agenda will be to forge Singaporean LP-to-Indian GP relationship and showcase India impact investing narrative. (2) In May, we are inviting Nordic funds to India for a 2-city roadshow through which we hope to enable a stronger bond with the Nordic countries and in the process build stronger impact investing opportunities. (3) In September, IIC will be hosting India’s largest impact investing platform, our flagship conference called Prabhav’24, which is our 5th edition of the convening. Last year we were joined by close to 800 delegates from nearly 25 countries, 180 speakers and 40 hours of extremely relevant content. We are trying to make it bigger and better this year. (4) In October, IIC will yet again be representing the India Room at the GIIN forum in Amsterdam.
One last question. I can’t help but ask you about the social impact assessment. It is one of the most important things for all of the social economy market and impact investing players. Do the participants of the global forums and platforms see new trends in this area?
Certainly, the landscape of social impact assessment is rapidly evolving, and participants in global forums and platforms are actively observing and adapting to new trends. They are increasingly acknowledging the need for standardized frameworks and metrics to measure and communicate social impact effectively. There is a growing emphasis on transparency, accountability, and the integration of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors into decision-making processes.
In 2017, recognizing the need for a deeper understanding, I personally collaborated with Duke University on an in-depth study on social impact assessment in India. This collaboration aimed
