I know most all of the readers of SIB News are outside Great Britain (as indeed am I!) but it’s interesting to see that where I mentioned last week there would be a UK budget marred by incompetence…there was indeed a budget marred by incompetence (hardly vast foresight, the Finance Minister is as peculiarly inept as the predecessor he most represents, the spendthrift Gordon Brown). However the resignation of the Minister for Work & Pensions is an interesting moment for the SIB movement insofar as Iain Duncan-Smith was a true reformer driven to improve the lot of the people (aka an atypical political being in these times of broad western self-interested political incapacity). This may yet impact the SIB movement in the UK -but it is not clear how. The PM and his devoted (but now surely – finally? – doomed) Finance Minister are good at PR tosh but don’t really get the plot on finance, or the social need to reform Britain from its current festering state of social service incompetence. Interesting times…
India in the news today, happy reading:
CSR May Fund Social Impact Bonds
Seema Chowdhry & Remya Nair – Livemint
Minister of state for finance Jayant Sinha says social impact bonds have proven to be very successful around the world.
Impact Investing: A New Disruption In Philanthropy
Seema Chowdhry – Livemint
Sir Ronald Cohen is Chairman of the Global Social Impact Investment Steering Group with 13 countries—the G8, India, Israel, Brazil, Mexico and Portugal—as partners. He is in India to attend three round tables in Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru to discuss and explore the potential of the impact investing sector in India. The events have been put together by the Impact Investors Council, the industry association of impact investors in India. Ahead of the round table in Delhi where he will meet sector experts, CEOs and foundation heads, Cohen talks about impact investing, and why governments can’t solve all social problems.