A bumper day of news with the highlight the improvement wrought to date by the Peterborough Bond while there’s news on Nandos and even a council on the broad social investment forum…
Peterborough Interim Figures Show Drop In Reconvictions
Civil Society
Interim figures for rates of reoffending among short-sentenced male prisoners released from Peterborough Prison since the social impact bond was launched there suggest that reconviction rates have fallen despite a rise nationally.
The figures, published by the Ministry of Justice today, track the frequency of reconvictions over one year of the first 16 months of the first cohort of released prisoners.
According to Social Finance, architect of the social impact bond, the figures show that there has been a 12 per cent decline in the frequency of conviction events per 100 prisoners since 2008 in Peterborough, compared with an increase of 11 per cent nationally.
The results also suggest that the scheme’s intervention has successfully reversed a trend whereby since at least September 2005, rates of reoffending by short-sentenced prisoners released from HMP Peterborough tended to exceed the national average.
Social Impact Bond Initiatives Gaining Traction In U.S.
beforeitsnews.com
Over the last two years, a new public-private partnership (PPP) concept known as “social impact bonds” (also known variously as “pay for success” or “social finance” initiatives) has been spreading rapidly in the U.S., capturing the attention of policymakers at all levels of government. In a nutshell, a social impact bond is a PPP that uses private sector funding to advance new social service delivery models on a performance basis, and it is a conceptual variation on a theme that has been spreading rapidly in the arena of privately financed public infrastructure projects. Though pioneered in the United Kingdom, in August 2012 New York City became the first local government in the U.S. to pilot a social impact bond initiative (in the area of youth recidivism), and several other states and local governments have announced or advanced projects since then.
Experiments in social impact bonds can be expected to start spreading further and faster over the coming year, after the Rockefeller Foundation and the Social Impact Bond Technical Assistance Lab at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government announced that six winners—Colorado/Denver, Connecticut, Illinois, New York State, Ohio and South Carolina—had won a national competition in June to provide technical assistance to state and local governments to develop social impact bond projects. Michigan later became the seventh winner in September when more funding was made available for the Rockefeller/Harvard initiative.
How A Restaurant Chain Pioneered A SIB To Fight Malaria
devex.com
Nando’s, the restaurant chain popular for its peri-peri chicken, recently announced a partnership creating the Mozambique Malaria Performance Bond, a development impact bond to fund malaria reduction efforts in Mozambique.
D. Capital, Dalberg’s impact investing arm, helped Nando’s create the model for the first social impact bond for malaria in Mozambique, and other partners include South African mining giant Anglo-American and Coca-Cola.
‘Research Council’ Formed By Industry Leaders To Deepen Social Investment Market
blue & green tomorrow
Five of the leading organisations in the social investment market have collaborated to launch a research body that will seek to maximise the benefits for socially-motivated investors by enhancing knowledge within the sector.
The Big Lottery Fund, Big Society Capital, Citi, the City of London Corporation and the Cabinet Office have joined forces to set up the Social Investment Research Council.
The five say the council’s ultimate aim is to “generate powerful and practical insights for the benefit of social sector organisations and investors”.
In its first year of operation, it will focus its efforts on better understanding the investment products currently on the market and the kind of investors they seek to attract.