Another bumper day to end the week including news of the first New Zealand SIB. Happy reading:
Incidentally, on a completely separate side note – while our day job is mostly focussed on financial markets infrastructure (we also publish “Exchange Invest” which is the benchmark daily read for financial market infrastructure professionals), I run with my wife a startup group in northern Poland, “Mission ToRun.” Our grassroots initiative hosts one of our flagship “Business Clinic” events this weekend – a simple, methodology helping people with ideas, plans or existing startups, to move forward. We’re looking for partners interested in hosting clinics elsewhere in 2016, so if your operation includes any side oriented to helping a community build new business please hit the reply button and email me!
The 4 Ps Of Pay For Success: Process
Eileen Neely – Living Cities
When considering Pay For Success transactions, we pay special attention to each step in the process – both before the intervention begins and after it ends.
Over the past few weeks, my colleagues from The Reinvestment Fund, and Living Cities and I shared our thinking about underwriting the credit worthiness of Pay for Success (PFS) transactions – from a high level overview of the four components we consider (the 4 Ps), to specifics on three of the Ps (Partnership, Program, and Policy). The final P is Process.
PLY: A very useful series of 4 articles ends and I am sure Eileen Neely and the Living Cities team’s posts will become regular must reads for a long time to come.
Conservatives Offer Next Chapter For Big Society
Lee Mannion – Pioneers Post
Following the release of the Labour Party manifesto, the Conservative Party have let voters know their intentions for social ventures ahead of the 7th May election.
Despite criticism of the term ‘Big Society’ as being a smokescreen for a smaller state at the expense of the needy, Cameron is sticking with it.
Under a chapter in the manifesto entitled ‘Helping You Build the Big Society’ there was veiled criticism of state departments and much crowing about the achievements to date in the social sector. The Tories want to see “communities working together, not depending on remote and impersonal bureaucracies”.
In addition, “social enterprises helping people into jobs through the Work Programme” are singled out. The manifesto goes on to list some landmarks under the coalition.
“We have launched the world’s first social investment bank, introduced more social impact bonds than the rest of the world combined and highlighted the great work done in communities with the Big Society Awards,” it reads.
NZ Health Ministry Well Advanced On First Social Impact Bond
Fiona Rotherham – Scoop
The Ministry of Health is well down the track to pilot the country’s first social impact bond, originally mooted 18 months ago, which would pay out on measurably improved social outcomes such as reductions in alcohol and drug use or recidivism.
The government gave approval in October 2013 for the ministry pilot to test the appetite of healthcare providers and investors for the bonds, which are already going mainstream in the US and in the UK where they started five years ago. With social impact bonds, typically a central or local government pays investors a return based on achieving agreed social outcomes.
The Ministry of Health didn’t respond to BusinessDesk’s request for comment but is understood to be at the stage of matching potential intermediaries and service providers, with a short-list due out later this month.
The New Zealand Initiative conservative think-tank is about to release a report on social bonds later this month which reviews overseas experiences and the potential application of the bonds in New Zealand.