The Motley Fool investment site is attracted to SIBs while New Zealand is still clearly struggling with a pathway to the future…
Social Impact Bonds: An Exciting New Way To Invest
Alyce Lomax – The Motley Fool
Most of us would agree that helping a young, scared, low-income mother navigate her pregnancy and the first two years of her child’s life — through financial support and otherwise — is a truly good thing to do. However, what if such assistance wasn’t considered a cost, but rather an investment, and one that could yield a good financial return on top of good works? More modern investors want to allocate their money in alignment with their hearts on issues like this one — and there’s an exciting new way to do so.
Increasing numbers of individuals and organizations are seeing the power of market-oriented solutions for major world problems. It’s all about recognizing that doing well financially and doing good for others aren’t mutually exclusive, and in fact, joining both motivations can result in a better, stronger economic future. Consider a newcomer on the investment landscape, the social impact bond, SIB.
English’s Bonds Lacking A Universal Catch-Cry
John Armstrong – New Zealand Herald
Bill English’s latest experiment in the delivery of social services to those at the bottom of the socio-economic heap is the most radical yet to emerge from his Beehive laboratory.
In politics, radical can be another word for risky. However, the Minister of Finance’s promotion of so-called “social bonds” – which harness private capital to fund state-sanctioned programmes helping the poor, the sick, the disabled and so on to have better options in their lives – is so far causing National less aggravation than some of English’s other reforms in the social sector.
Sure, National’s opponents and other critics like the Child Poverty Action Group have attacked last month’s Budget-related announcement that the Ministry of Health is close to getting a pilot programme up and running which will assess the usefulness in a local setting of “social impact bonds” – as they are more commonly recognised in overseas jurisdictions.
The first of an initial four New Zealand-based SIBs – as the bonds are also known – will have fresh and higher targets for getting more mental health patients into jobs.