G8 Countries Commit to Social Investment
12 June 2013 at 10:10 am
G8 governments last week committed to help grow the global market for social investment in the lead up to the 39th G8 summit in Northern Ireland.
Key commitments from the June 6 Social Impact Investment Forum included an OECD report to value the market for social investment, convergence of social investment and international development projects, and a global expert group to advocate best practice and recognised international standards.
An international taskforce made up of G8 Governments, industry and civil society representatives will oversee the implementation of the strategy.
The taskforce will be chaired by Sir Ronald Cohen, chair of the world’s first social investment bank Big Capital.
Other plans announced included a Global Learning Exchange on social investment, encouraging investors, policy makers and entrepreneurs to debate and generate ideas.
In his speech to open the forum, UK Prime Minister David Cameron said ‘social investment can be a great force for social change on the planet’.
Cameron used the platform to announce three additional initiatives he planned to introduce in the UK.
They included tax breaks for social investments, a Social Stock Exchange to measure the success of those investments, and help for communities to buy local assets.
The forum, requested by Cameron as part of the UK’s G8 Presidency this year, was the first of its kind.
Figureheads from finance and civil society were behind an open letter from industry that lauded the Prime Minister and G8 leaders for their efforts to embrace impact investing.
They included JP Morgan, Deutsche Bank, Morgan Stanley, Credit Suisse, Goldman Sachs, Big Society Capital, KPMG, the Ford and Rockefeller Foundations and the Omidyar Network.
The ‘Group of Eight’ is made up of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the US and the UK. The nations meet for a summit once a year.
Click here to read UK Prime Minister David Cameron’s speech in full.
