The Impact World this Week: 1 August 2024
Your quick guide to the most interesting news snippets about social enterprise, impact investment and mission-driven business around the world from the Pioneers Post team. This week: FT recognises growing importance of impact investment movement, UK government names minister for social enterprise (among many other roles), Indian government notes development impact bond’s success, and more.
UK: Three weeks after it won the general election, the UK’s Labour government named Stephanie Peacock (pictured) as minister with responsibility for civil society, which includes social enterprises, in the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. Social Enterprise UK’s director of policy and research Emily Darko welcomed Peacock’s appointment but emphasised that it was also keeping an eye on other departmental appointments. She said: “In our times of political, social, economic and environmental turbulence, civil society has never been more important. Labour’s commitment to growing diverse business and doubling the size of cooperatives and mutuals is welcome recognition of the role that social enterprises can play, across civil society beyond. As such, we keenly await details of who is taking responsibility for this in the Department for Business and Trade.” Stephen Timms, who on the eve of the election called for a Labour government to partner with the impact economy (and who had responsibility for social enterprise in 2002-2004 as minister for competitiveness under prime minister Tony Blair), has been named minister for social security and disability in the Department for Work and Pensions.
Global: “Once a niche strategy, impact investment is gaining ground among large-scale investors.” So said the Financial Times this week, as it published a list of 118 impact investors and their assets under management in partnership with the Global Impact Investing Network (GIIN). Sapna Shah, GIIN president, said: “Our mission at the GIIN is to scale the impact investing industry with integrity and this list should inspire more investors to bring impact investing into their portfolios. Having the Financial Times as the list’s platform further bolsters impact investing’s legitimacy, and we expect this to spark conversation in the boardrooms of investors who are not on this list.”
India: The Indian government’s Economic Survey 2023-24, part of the annual budget process, included a mention of the British Asian Trust’s Skill Impact Bond, highlighting its “innovative and results-based finance mechanism…to attract private sector funds and expertise for skill development, job placements and retention”. The British Asian Trust said it was “thrilled to see the Skill Impact Bond’s unique approach and interim results highlighted within this seminal document”.
- Explore more about the Skill Impact Bond in our interview with Abha Thorat-Shah
Scotland: The shortlist for the 2024 Social Enterprise Awards Scotland was announced today by Social Enterprise Scotland. There are nine categories and the shortlisted organisations for social enterprise of the year are CEIS, Community Food Initiatives North East, Isle of Gigha Heritage Trust, New Start Highland and Simon Community Scotland. The award winners will be announced at a celebration event on 7 November.
Movers and Shakers
- José Luis Ruiz de Munain is stepping down as director general of the SpainNAB in October, after co-founding its predecessor organisation in 2018. The search has begun for his successor. A new board of directors was appointed in July.
- Bboxx, which connects African people with clean energy, smartphones and financial products, has appointed its former CFO Anthony Osijo as CEO, taking over from co-founder Mansoor Hamayun, who becomes executive chair.
- Philippa Moors is the new charities relationship manager at the UK’s Unity Trust Bank.
In case you missed it
Italy: In Turin, the chamber of commerce signed an agreement in mid-July with the city council to draft an action plan to support the social economy by the end of 2024. Mario Calderini, a professor at the Politecnico di Milano and spokesperson for Torino Social Impact, which brings together more than 300 social economy organisations, said that social enterprises are recognised by the city as having a role not only in welfare and redistribution but also in industrial and economic development and contributing to “more equitable and inclusive growth”. There are nearly 600 social enterprises in the city.
