More news from NZ where the first SIB is looming while your free metropolitan wifi in South Africa could soon come courtesy of a SIB too. Interesting times:
NZ – Budget 2015: Social Bond To Focus On Mental Health
Scoop
New Zealand’s first social bond will aim to empower people with mental illness and support their families, Finance Minister Bill English and Health Minister Jonathan Coleman say.
Social Impact Bonds, in which the return for investors will be partially determined by whether or not agreed social targets have been achieved, will become another tool in the Government’s social investment approach that is aiming to improve the lives and prospects of the most vulnerable New Zealanders.
“The Government is focused on achieving better results for individuals and families in highest need,” Finance Minister Bill English says.
Budget 2015 set aside $28.8 million for four social bond programmes and the first will expand on a small and successful pilot delivering employment services to people with mental health conditions.
Tshwane Free Wi-Fi Project Provides Model For Social Impact Bond
Biz Community
A free Wi-Fi project that has successfully taken root in Tshwane could set the pattern for social impact bonds in South Africa in which the private sector guarantees delivery of services and the public sector guarantees payment and commercial funding is accessed upfront from the financial markets.
Social impact bonds are a form of innovative funding that gives service providers, including nonprofit organisations, access to upfront resources to tackle social problems by tapping private funding to cover the upfront costs of social programmes approved by government institutions.
Kasief Isaacs, the portfolio manager for infrastructure investments at Mergence Investment Managers, says that Mergence has recently provided financing to Project Isizwe to accelerate the roll-out of a free Wi-Fi project supported by the Tshwane Municipality. Project Isizwe is a hi-tech non-profit organisation headquartered in Stellenbosch which was also responsible for rolling out that city’s free WiFi project from 2013 to 2015.