Photo: Georgetown University
Official content:
To support the development of an Impact Economy, the Secretary's Global Impact Economy Forum gathered 350 high-level investors, business executives, entrepreneurs, philanthropists, academics, and policymakers to discuss how to create greater coordination, collaboration, and efficiency in this emerging industry. The action-oriented Forum included two days of interactive panels, workshops, inspirational keynotes, networking breaks and announcements of public and private sector deliverables that will be implemented post-Forum.
Karl H Richter (Executive Director of EngagedX) was invited to speak, in his capacity as Advisor on Social Impact Investment to the Euclid Network, on the plenary panel From Niche to Mainstream: New Frontiers of Policy. This panel explored new policies being considered both in the U.S. and abroad to facilitate the impact economy. It was moderated by Rosabeth Kanter (Harvard University) and panellists included James Zhan (UN Conference on Trade and Development), Peter Knight (Generation Investment Management), Marisa Lago (U.S. Department of Treasury).
Objectives of the Forum
The Forum aimed to improve collaboration between investors, businesses, entrepreneurs, governments and civil society and create opportunities to enhance and expand the Impact Economy. Key themes included:
- From aid to investment: How can government and philanthropic resources and tools catalyze business and investment opportunities that yield financial, social and environmental returns?
- From short-term to long-term horizons: Why is it important that businesses look beyond short-term shareholder value creation to longer term, sustainable, risk-adjusted returns that will enable them to maintain their competitiveness, build brand equity, and capture new markets? What are key barriers and hurdles to achieving this? What models are working? What can be done to place more emphasis on longer-term value creation?
- From silos to synergy: How can we leverage the assets of multiple players and employ a design approach to solve multi-dimensional challenges? How can the government leverage its resources to support the private sector’s efforts to create market-driven solutions to the world’s most pressing challenges?
- From status quo to a supportive policy framework: What needs to be done to create a supportive policy and institutional environment to incentivize investments that yield attractive financial, social, and environmental returns? Which countries have made significant progress to date? In which sectors? How can we replicate best practices and learn from past failures?
(This page includes content from the US State Department's website, read the original article here)