chevron icon Twitter logo Facebook logo LinkedIn logo YouTube logo download icon link icon audio icon quote icon posted icon clock icon author icon arrow icon arrow icon plus icon Search icon location icon location icon document icon menu icon plus-alt

This is our monthly policy briefing for July 2020. Each week we gather all the news, commentary and events from across the sector, then tie it all together each month. If you would like to get this in your inbox each week you can sign up to Tiny Letter.

Conference Social Outcomes Conference 2020 – We are regularly updating the programme of SOC20 on 1-4th September 2020, you can take a look at the programme and see our speakers online. Remember to register online to hear more in the coming weeks – register for free here. GO Lab 

Outcomes based approaches 

Webinar Lessons from outcomes-based approaches to employment in low and middle income countries – On 28th July (tomorrow) at 3-4pm you can join this webinar which will be the first in a series from Social Finance that explores skills training and employment in the Covid-19 era. It will be chaired by Mara Airoldi, Director of the GO Lab, and the panellists will be Abha Thorat Shah, Maria Laura Tinelli, and Peter Nicholas. Social Finance

Research Social impact bonds and fast policy: Analysing the Australian experience – This research paper explores the Australian experience of impact bonds. The ‘Australian experience illuminates the power of intermediaries and the investors they represent over the design and proliferation of SIBs…’ Environment and Planning

Opinion Growing an international innovation in a local ecosystem requires a strategic approach - This is the first in the five-part seres that will share learnings from Abu Dhabi in relation to social impact bond development and implementation, as well as wider developments in embedding a focus on social outcomes across Government. In this blog, Dr Chih Hoong Sin, Director at Traverse shares the ambition for SIBs in Abu Dhabi, how they are 'repurposing the foundation blocks' and 'innovating through gap filling'. The GO Lab  

You can join Chih Hoong Sin on day 2 of the Social Outcomes Conference in the session ‘if impact bonds are the answer, then what is the question?’  

Research Sustainable Financial Partnerships for the SDGs: The case of social impact bonds – This open access article looks at the field of social impact bonds and aims to understand how these instruments are suitable for partnering to help achieve the SDGs, and determine the interplay between SIBs and SDGs. Sustainability
 
Research Betting on children at risk: Actors’ views on the introduction of social impact bonds in the French field of ‘childhood in danger’ – This paper documents key actors’ views on SIBs in terms of their present and foreseeable effects. Elen Riot, Journal of Urban Affairs
 
You can join the author, Elen Riot, Associate Professor at Universite de Reims, on day 3 of our online Social Outcomes Conference in the session ‘contracting for risk transfer and innovation’

Impact investing  

Book Review Nick O’Donohoe on Sir Ronald Cohen – In his review of Impact: Reshaping Capitalism to Drive Real Change, O’Donohoe acknowledges that social impact bonds, championed by Sir Ronald Cohen, ‘have grown more slowly than many had hoped for’ Impact Alpha

Opinion Look at how far we’ve come: impact investing – This article gives an overview of impact investing over the last 20 years from an Australian perspectives. It shares the first Australian SIB, the challenges of impact washing and impact measurement, and also takes a look to the future. Pro Bono Australia