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May 4, 2025
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Impact Bonds: Driving a New Paradigm in Development Finance

By
Aayush Dutta
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impact bonds

Since its launch in 2010, impact bonds have gained much attention in the development finance world. It has been hailed by many development finance experts as an innovative way to address societal challenges by bridging the gap in social impact financing. The latest entrant in the growing list of innovative development financial instruments has also received its fair bit of criticism for the increasing ‘financialisation’ of social development and being too arcane and time consuming to design.

Replicating experiments already made in the developed world, all eyes are on developing countries to test their potential. India, given its maturing social investment ecosystem, is uniquely positioned to attract social impact investors and global philanthropic funds.

Impact bonds are innovative results-based financing in which there are three primary stakeholders – a primary investor, the service provider, and the outcome funder. The primary investor is the one who is willing to fund a service provider – typically an NGO – to implement a social impact project expecting a return on its completion. The outcome of the project is measured by an independent evaluator against pre-agreed outcome metrics. Once these targets are met, the outcome funder refunds the capital with a premium to the initial investor. This arrangement ties the investment to outcomes rather than only activities enhancing the value for money of a given intervention and clearly specifying the cost of the measurable outcomes, instead of the inputs. The investor invests on the risk of achievability of the outcome, failing to which the investor will lose partial or complete investment. The outcome funder pays a premium for funding an intervention that has already achieved its outcomes. The service provider gains resources for delivering outcome-based programmes. In a social impact bond (SIB), the outcome funder is the government, while in a development impact bond (DIB), outcomes are financed by a third-party organization, such as a foundation or donor.

Most of the impact bond contracts that are executed around the world are SIBs. The UK has spearheaded the impact bond market executing one-third of the total contracts. India was the experimental ground for executing the first ever DIB in the education sector, Educate Girls DIB (launched in 2015). Since then, it has executed two more DIBs, a health impact DIB in Rajasthan (launched in 2017) and Quality Education India DIB (launched in 2018).

Educate Girls DIB finished its final year in 2018 achieving 116 per cent of its target for enrolling out-of-school girls, and 160 per cent of its targets for learning outcomes. With the experience gained from its implementation, India is seen to be moving ahead from the proof of concept phase.

It is also important to note that all three impact bonds are development impact bonds being outcome funded by a foundation or donor with the government still at bay. Recognising the emerging appetite for DIBs in India, Global Steering Group launched two outcome funds of USD 1 billion each, the India Education Outcomes Fund and the India Impact Fund of Funds.

A shift towards payment by results not only makes impact bonds attractive for government and state actors in India but also induces greater transparency in channelling taxpayer money. However, as of now, the government is yet to signal its policy commitment towards promoting this innovative mechanism.

Shunmuga SundaramShunmuga Sundaram Yadav has previously worked for an Italian consulting firm promoting Italian businesses in developing countries and assisting them to participate in projects funded by Multilateral Development Banks. He has also worked on consulting projects for strategizing market entry of Italian brands in India. He has completed a course in Aircraft Maintenance Engineering and a Bachelor’s degree in Commerce. He is currently pursuing a Master’s Degree in Public Policy from Mumbai University.

Thank you for reading the column until the very end. We appreciate the time you have given us. In addition, your thoughts and inputs will genuinely make a difference to us. Please do drop in a line and help us do better.

Regards,
The CSR Journal Team

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Trend: Machine Learning For CSR Research

By
Kasmin Fernandes
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machine learning
Content analysis has emerged as a useful tool for conducting CSR research. While having been useful for CSR research, the popular content analysis approaches alone are less effective for the analysis of big data, which may include millions (or billions) of rows of text.
Today, corporate reports and sustainability disclosures are increasingly available in digital formats (e.g., GRI Initiative, CSRHUB). Also, large volumes of CSR-related communication and information flow through social media platforms (Twitter, Facebook and blogs).
As CSR-related data increases in volume, computational text analysis emerges as an effective tool for quickly processing, visualizing, and analyzing such large CSR datasets. Computational text analysis uses natural language-processing techniques (NLP) and advanced machine learning (ML) algorithms, which are often borrowed from computer science and statistics.

Supervised Machine Learning

Two types of Machine Learning-based approaches are considered for advanced content analysis: supervised and unsupervised. To use supervised ML-based text analysis, researchers need the text corpora containing known categories or labels, and to build predictive models using such algorithms as Support Vector Machine (SVM) and Naïve Bayes.
Text classification (e.g., if a stakeholder’s Facebook post about a company’s CSR is positive or negative) is a popular application of supervised Machine Learning. The key challenge with the supervised approach is that known categories (or a training dataset) may not be readily available in the research data and preparing a training dataset to build the predictive models, especially for big data analysis, takes a great deal of time. 

Unsupervised Machine Learning

On the other hand, unsupervised Machine Learning approaches do not need the data with known categories (a training dataset). The unsupervised text analysis takes raw texts as the input, preprocesses and transforms them through NLP techniques (e.g., removing stopwords, converting words to numbers) and, finally, attempts to discover categories or topics from the text data using advanced statistical algorithms.
This unsupervised approach can be scaled to large datasets and has appeared attractive to social science researchers. For example, traditional clustering algorithms reveal similarities between documents or texts, and recent algorithms, such as Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) and Correlated Topic Model (CTM), uncover latent topics from large amounts of text data.

Topic modeling

Topic modeling is an unsupervised machine learning-based content analysis technique focusing on automatically discovering hidden latent structure from large text corpora. In topic modeling, a document is considered a collection of words containing multiple topics in different proportions. For example, a social media post may be largely about natural environments, while it is also about health and supply chain (i.e., 70% natural environments, 20% health, and 10% supply chain).
A growing number of social enterprise systems increasingly rely on Machine learning algorithms, and this is just the beginning of adapting Machine Learning techniques for CSR.
This article is part of a series on ‘Artificial Intelligence for Social Good and CSR’

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CSR: India is Among least Cyber-Secure Countries

By
Hency Thacker
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cyber security
Digitally, India is growing at a tremendous speed. Easier accessibility and faster supportability have made it highly acceptable in every sector. The government is also promoting and encouraging more digital transactions in order to bring more transparency. This makes the country more vulnerable to cyber threats.
According to a tech review firm Comparitech, India is among the least cyber-secure nations in the world. The country ranked 15th in the least cyber-secure countries across the globe. This puts India far below the average.
The score in the ranking was based on seven criteria: percentage of mobiles infected with malware, share of computers infected with malware, number of financial malware attacks, percentage of telnet attacks—the technique used by cybercriminals to get people to download a variety of malware types—percentage of attacks by crypto-miners, the best-prepared countries for cyber attacks and the countries with the most up-to-date legislation.
Over the last year, the country has seen a series of cybercrimes. For example, in July 2018, an ATM fraud hit the city of Kolkata where about 76 victims lost about 20 lakh rupees in 5 days. A month after that, two criminals from Navi Mumbai were accused of transferring money from bank accounts after stealing SIM card information. Even the world’s biggest biometric ID programme, Aadhar suffered from several cyber attacks and breaches.
India ranks fourth out of the top 10 most targeted countries by cyber attackers. Cybersecurity defenders are facing a lot of threats from cybercriminals. Because of the crowded space, and less number of professionals, cybersecurity is moving at a slower pace than required.
Recognising the importance of cyber-security, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MEITY), is now mandating all other ministries to earmark 10 per cent of their IT budgets for security spending. The government wants to beef up its IT infrastructure in the wake of recent security attacks such as Wannacry, Ransomware, and so on. The Ministry also plans to set up ten more Standardization Testing and Quality Certification (STQC) labs that provide quality assurance services in IT and electronics.
India is moving slowly, but surely towards cyber safety. Participation of India Inc. by encouraging more skill development through CSR initiatives in cyber training can fasten the process.

‘My Earth 2050: Sustainable Habitats for Co-Existence’ by Godrej & K C College

By
The CSR Journal
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My Earth 2050 Sustainable Habitats for Co-Existence by Godrej & K C College

Around 125 Biology students and professors from 17 colleges and two NGOs of Mumbai participated in ‘My Earth 2050: Sustainable Habitats for Co-Existence’ organized by K C College and Godrej & Boyce Mfg Co Ltd.

The two-day National Biodiversity Conclave discussed biodiversity management in three sessions with focus on development & infrastructure projects, ecosystem management & restoration and biodiversity research.

Dr Saroj Barik, Director, National Botanical Research of India, delivered the keynote address and enlightened the participants about promising applications of molecular biology and genetics research in sustainable development. Dr Rahul Mungikar, Asst Director, BNHS, in his valedictory function speech, described role and importance of traditional wisdom and community participation through The Biological Diversity Act 2002 and Public Biodiversity Register (PBR).

Founders of professional consultancies such as GrassRoots, Building Environment (India) Pvt Ltd shared their experiences of Charlotte Lake restoration at Matheran and Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) of Mumbai Trans Harbor Link and highways passing through national parks and sanctuaries of Maharashtra.

A presentation on environmental legal framework updated the participants about rules and regulations, and avenues of participation by individuals and organizations in biodiversity conservation. Presentation of a case study on conversion of dump yard to Maharashtra Nature Park, Sion inspired the participants on habitat restoration.

The Biodiversity Conclave participants were offered firsthand experience of ecosystem management with an early mangrove nature trail at Godrej mangroves. Team Godrej presented its case study of decades of mangrove management and its benefits to entire Mumbai Metropolitan Region.

By the end of second day, the participants made presentations on their learnings of two-day sessions and nature trail. Wetland Management Services (WMS) Department of Godrej Construction conceptualised and executed this national event with support from various Godrej & Boyce teams.

CSR: How villagers in Odisha saved sal forest from a factory using Chipko & media

By
Kasmin Fernandes
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Protestors at sal forest in Balarampur
The trees of the Jhinkargadi forest have been nurtured for three generations by the villagers of Balarampur in Odisha. For more than four decades, since 1972 the villagers, especially women have been involved in taking care of the forest. Everyone from the village is part of the traditional rotational forest patrolling routine, under which two men from two families patrol 600 acres of forest each day to ensure smugglers and poachers aren’t destroying it.
Not only is the forest a source of livelihood to the villagers, it is also an important elephant corridor. According to Sushanta Kumar Dhala, Secretary, Balarampur Gramya Parichalana Parishad (BGPP), “Not only commercial are there plants, as many as 116 types of plants and medicinal trees are there.”
The forest has been a site of dispute between the villagers and the government since the state run Odisha Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation, the nodal agency for facilitating land for industries, had shown interest in acquiring the land as a land bank for industrial projects.
On 17 November, 2018, hundreds of villagers of Balarampur village in Dhenkanal district of central Odisha clashed with the police to prevent felling of sal trees in the old forest of Jhinkargadi which has about 5000 sal trees, says a Times of India report.
The trees were being cut down for a proposed liquor bottling plant by P&A Bottlers Pvt. Ltd. The massive ceremony of this brewery project worth INR 102 crores was conducted by the Chief Minister of Odisha, Naveen Patnaik, on November 3, 2018 through a video conference according to The Indian Express.
On 17 November, women used the method of the Chipko movement to hug the trees to stop them from being felled. They had been doing it since November 7 to prevent the logging of the trees. Close to 1000 trees were felled by the local administration, amidst protests, scuffles, arrests and live media coverage.
Dhenkanal SP Santosh Kumar Nayak confirmed that the police had arrested 13 people and forwarded them to court, who were later released in the evening. During this day and the next, the incident garnered a lot of media, activist and political attention.
Eminent social activists such as Prafulla Samantar, Debi Prusty and others addressed the villagers and expressed their solidarity. Many forest rights and tribal rights activists and advocacy groups such as Vasundhara were also reporting about the incident on social media including Twitter, and urging the chief minister to save the forest and listen to the protests of the people.
On 18 November, the opposition held a press meeting to register their concerns. Leader of the opposition Narasingha Mishra said as per law, trees cannot be cut without the Centre’s permission. Due to all the protests and the visibility, Naveen Patnaik ordered a probe into the matter by the Revenue Divisional Commissioner and also cancelled the brewery project. “Trees were felled forcibly which is illegal and a criminal offence,” he told Hindustan Times.
Women from the village performed the last rites of the felled trees by first performing a puja on the felled logs and then planting saplings of fruit-bearing trees on the same patch of land, and vowing to protect the forests against industrial projects.
A victory for the compassionate villagers of Balarampur who have started a new Chipko movement!

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Redefining the path to Social Justice- One Day at a Time

By
Dr. Huzaifa Khorakiwala, CEO & Trustee, Wockhardt Foundation
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Social Justice

The idea of social justice has always taken meaning in form of conventional discussions around bringing in integrity between the individuals of the society and the society itself. International Day for Social Justice was conceptualized in 2007 and since then has been observed every year on February 20th. According to the United Nations statement, it is regarded as the underlying principle for peaceful coexistence within and among nations. The United Nations global mission is to promote development and human dignity and the day is observed as an awareness means to encourage the same. Supporting human rights and standing up for the rights of the elderly, and the disabled are the standard themes that are observed every year. Additionally, it addresses issues that are faced by the people, focusing on tackling unemployment, poverty and exclusion. It is intermittently linked to people facing problems of gender inequality, unemployment, etc.

What does the new world demand?

The classifier parameters of social justice that are being concentrated today include solutions in gender equality, migration and empowerment of backward classes. In recent years the emphasis has shifted to more basic elements; for instance, the Supreme Court of India decriminalised Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code, which is considered one of the most significant gender acceptance rulings made by India. The Inter-American Court of Human Rights ordered the Latin American countries to make gay marriages legal, which was also considered a major victory in terms of enabling social justice. Various other countries around the world moved in the direction of gender equality by passing similar judgements that support social justice in this aspect.

Another important element that is to be considered while talking about social justice is migration. According to a report by The Guardian, US researchers revealed that close to 87 million people migrate every five years; with the statistic of 1 in 80 people migrating to a different country. This is greatly attributed to unequal employment opportunities arising from social disparities. However, the measurement of migration is difficult owing to the challenges that come with data inconsistency for developing countries and inaccuracy for others.

Back home, there are various steps that are being taken by the government by means of steadily increasing budgetary allocation to close to 6% since last year, for the Social Justice and Empowerment Ministry. According to the announcements during this year’s budget, close to 54% of the funds were spent on scholarships that benefitted over 60 lakh SC persons and 53 lakh OBCs.

The entities that are responsible for ensuring social justice in the society boil down to individuals; when all of us take the onus of our deeds. When individuals become responsible and have a sense of belonging to the society, steps are taken in direction of ensuring social justice for all and problems linked to prejudice are solved.

Dr Huzaifa Khorakiwala heads the non-profit organisation, Wockhardt Foundation, which runs several programmes in health, education, water and sanitation across India. He is also the Executive Director of Wockhardt Limited. An MBA from the prestigious Yale University in the USA, he has won numerous awards and is associated with many social causes. He is also the Founder of “The World Peacekeepers Movement”, an online movement.

Views of the author are personal and do not necessarily represent the website’s views.

Thank you for reading the column until the very end. We appreciate the time you have given us. In addition, your thoughts and inputs will genuinely make a difference to us. Please do drop in a line and help us do better.

Regards,
The CSR Journal Team

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CSR: Two Indian tech companies are models of inclusion

By
Kasmin Fernandes
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inclusivity at tech companies
For India to become an inclusive society, it is important that the nation’s corporate sector sensitises itself to the country’s diversity, its gender differences, ethnicity, and tolerance, and emerges as truly inclusive.

Role models

In this regard, MphasiS and Vindhya E-Infomedia have put in place progressive and employee-centric policies, bringing them a social return on investment. For MphasiS, inclusivity is embedded in their attitude and this starts from recruitment and moves to growth and development of each employee.
Being an equal opportunity employer, the company ensures that needs of PWDs (persons with disabilities) are taken into consideration at every stage from recruitment onwards. The firm ensures that reasonable accommodation is made during the recruitment process and PWDs are encouraged to apply for all available posts.
The induction programme includes training which is sensitive towards the needs of PWDs. Therefore facilities like audio visual tools, wheelchairs, video captioning, etc. are provided during the induction training. In addition, MphasiS has a sensitisation program for all employees, which ensures seamless assimilation of PWDs in the company.

Equal rights

MphasiS has aligned its inclusive policy with the UN Convention on Rights of Persons with Disabilities, 2006. The company has an internal subject matter expert and consults Diversity and Equal Opportunity Centre (DEOC), an NGO, to understand the requirements of PWDs. The physical infrastructure of all premises has been made accessible for PWDs, which is regularly audited by DEOC. Further, MphasiS also has an accessible website which follows the WCAG 2.0 guidelines.
Such comprehensive and holistic practices have helped to make MphasiS one of the few companies where PWDs account for 1% of the workforce.
Making diversity the rule, not the exception is Vindhya E-Infomedia located in Bengaluru. It recruits the disabled for its operations in data management, data entry, data processing, data conversion, etc. While companies are still deliberating the employment of PWDs, eVindhya has set a path-breaking example by having PWD in their workforce.

Training PWD

Further, most of their employees are school and college dropouts who are given relevant training for jobs in the company. Not turning away any disabled person who applies is their motto and if candidates are found to be lacking in job skills, they are referred to relevant skill training programs and absorbed on completion of the training.
Watch a Tedx talk by inclusivity champion Pavithra YS, the firm’s chairperson and managing director.

Their attrition rate is minimal, employees’ productivity is at par with any able bodied person, and the company still runs a sustainable business model. Through these progressive policies and practices, eVindhya has successfully proven that a viable and sustainable business can be run with PWD inclusion.

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Bike rally to increase awareness on Multiple Sclerosis

By
The CSR Journal
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Bikers on their way to NIMHANS

Omega Healthcare, along with Multiple Sclerosis Society of India, observed the India Multiple Sclerosis Day by flagging-off a bike rally in Bangalore to generate awareness about the degenerative disease.

Similar biker rallies were held across the country by MSSI in Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Indore, Kolkata, Mumbai and Pune too.

Multiple Sclerosis is a chronic neurodegenerative condition that affects different parts of the central nervous system. It is often referred to as the mysterious crippler of the young adult as it generally strikes its victims between the age group of 20 and 40 years. It is estimated that the total no. of MS patients India is close to 180,000 people.

The rally started at 8 am from the office of Omega Healthcare on NAL Wind Tunnel Road and concluded at NIMHANS Hospital, Hosur Road in Bangalore. Flagging off the rally were V. S. Basvaraju, State Disability Commissioner, Government of Karnataka and Purushothama Reddy, Senior Vice-President-Finance & Head of CSR, Omega Healthcare Management Services Pvt. Ltd.

V S Basavaraju, the State Disability Commissioner said, “The government has always been supportive of causes to help increase awareness of many diseases and the treatment. It is important for us to support people who have certain disabilities and ensure they feel more inclusive.”

Punkaj Gupta, Hon. Secretary MSSI-Bangalore Chapter said, “Surprisingly, public knowledge about MS is very low, though it is prevalent across all sections of the society. There is little information out there about MS and it tends to drive patients underground. We need more partners like Omega Healthcare to help us support the cause.”

 

MakeMyTrip’s GoGreen Drive Helps Plant One Million Trees

By
The CSR Journal
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tree plantation MakeMyTrip

MakeMyTrip has successfully supported plantation of One Million Trees through MakeMyTrip Foundation in Rajasthan’s Rajsamand and Udaipur districts as part of its efforts to support responsible travel. The drive has been carried out in partnership with Seva Mandir, a leading non-profit organization that works with local communities on development projects, especially focusing on sustainability.

The company’s GoGreen initiative is a 360-degree drive that aims to promote responsible travel and environmental sustainability by involving all stakeholders including customers, employees and local communities. The tree plantation effort covering 2350 hectares of land has been carried out with the contribution made by customers to the foundation each time they have booked their flights and hotels on the platform.

Speaking about the company’s green milestone, Minister of State for Tourism, Mr K.J. Alphons said, “The efforts made by MakeMyTrip Foundation and Sewa Mandir are commendable and am happy that they have reached the significant milestone of planting one million trees. If we are to make tourism sustainable in India, all stakeholders including Industry leaders need to step up and co-create innovative solutions to make Responsible Tourism the norm and not an exception.”

Commenting on the initiative, Deep Kalra, Founder and Group CEO, MakeMyTrip said, “As India’s one-stop-travel-shop, we have always felt it’s incumbent on us to promote responsible travel. While travel opens new horizons and is a necessity more than a choice for a new India on the move, we are also conscious of the impact it makes to our environment. To help offset the carbon footprint of travellers, we joined hands with our customers to help make the difference – this initiative is a unique example of corporate-community partnership for social impact. We are immensely proud of the results and are hopeful that this is just the start of a collaborative impact that we can make together by making a thoughtful contribution”

A public charitable trust, the MakeMyTrip Foundation has been set up to actively and passionately contribute towards issues of broader social impact, especially focusing on promoting responsible travel. As part of its charter, the Foundation is investing resources and creating awareness to improve ecological balance, offset carbon footprint and support restoration of Indian heritage. It supports these goals through soft skills training of local travel hosts & travel guides, training of front-line staff at tourism hot spots and its plastic waste management project that it has piloted in three islands of Andamans and Gurgaon.

MakeMyTrip Foundation has also recently signed an MoU with Sonam Wangchuk’s Himalayan Institute of Alternatives (HIAL) in Ladakh for a first of its kind carbon offsetting project.

CSR in 2019: 5 Trends That Will Redefine The CSR Sector This Year

By
The CSR Journal
-
CSR trends for 2019

While there may not a fixed definition to corporate social responsibility (CSR), it is fundamentally a belief that companies have certain social, environmental, and ethical responsibilities they need to address. Businesses must use their resources to solve real-world problems which impact not only their immediate environment and stakeholders but society in general. Among these stakeholders is the community in which the business operates. And when the government is unable to serve the needs of a community, and if it is not financially viable for the private sector to do so, social sector organizations step in to protect the interests of the community.

It cannot be denied that the social sector has played a crucial role in the implementation of major legislative changes, and in negotiating with the government on policy-driven interventions over the past several decades. However, the social sector’s potential to effect large-scale change or spearhead major development programs is often undercut by its inability to raise funds and due to a lack of organizational capabilities. This often has a direct, and less than the favourable impact on the overall impact of CSR programs and initiatives undertaken by corporates.

Although, the tide seems to be turning as the social sector is starting to undergo significant changes, with technology and corporate-like management practices being some of the key elements of this transformation. The following, then, are some of the key trends that the CSR space is expected to witness in 2019.

1. NGOs Will Adapt and Get Better at Working With the New Type of Funders – Corporates

NGOs and the social sector have traditionally collaborated with either government agencies or with international aid agencies. In recent years, the social sector has found new collaborators in multinational corporations and large Indian companies. These companies are partnering with non-government organizations (NGOs) to plan and execute their social responsibility initiatives in some of the most critical areas such as education, sanitation, healthcare, water sustainability, etc. Such collaborations also present the social sector with significant opportunities, as working alongside the corporate sector will not only provide them access to higher funds, but also the technological and intellectual resources they require.

Previously NGOs largely focused on the application process for the government or international aid. Alternatively, they raised funds from individuals such as wealthy donors and philanthropists by appealing to their softer, humane side. But now that corporate support, both financial and organizational, has become more critical for the social sector, NGOs need to make a strong business case for funding. Their proposals, therefore, will need to focus more on aspects like KPIs, impact, deliverables, adhering to timelines, along with doing diligent reporting. This is a new skill they need to learn. While some have already adapted to this changing landscape, the majority of the social sector will have to adapt to it as swiftly as possible to ensure that they translate their vision into reality, measurable outcomes.

2. Corporates Will Start Thinking of CSR as Another Pillar of Their Corporate Strategy, Instead of as Philanthropy

Sustainability issues and social responsibility have become a key consideration for business leaders and decision-makers in the corporate sector, in the last couple of years. Companies, therefore, are increasingly looking to integrate CSR as a mainstay for their managerial processes, decision-making, and overall strategy, with an aim to position themselves not just as philanthropic, but as socially responsible organizations. CSR is not a tax, but rather an investment towards building sustainable societies and businesses, and has significant positive impacts on the business. This is a fact CXOs are now beginning to realize; to quote the Strategy Head of a finance corporation, “We don’t need a CSR strategy, we need a corporate strategy that incorporates CSR.” Even the government’s stance is in tandem with the corporate sector’s position on CSR, with the Minister of State for Corporate Affairs, PP Chaudhary having recently said that CSR activities should be part of the long-term strategy of companies and should not be treated as ad hoc activities.

3. More Companies Will Comply and Engage in Long-term Partnerships With NGOs

To navigate the complex landscape of the social sector, companies need to build a body of knowledge pertaining to the development area they are operating in. NGOs operate in various sub-sectors such as environment, education, health, gender equality, etc. Each of these sub-sectors is different from the other and requires a specialist approach to deal with their unique set of challenges and issues. Moreover, since measurable impact takes longer to achieve, corporates will seek to engage in longer-term collaborations with NGOs to leverage their knowledge for greater on-ground impact.

4. For-Profit Social Ventures Will Emerge as a Major Force of Social Good

A number of for-profit ventures have emerged in the recent past that are tackling specific social issues through innovative products and services. For instance, there are women entrepreneurs manufacturing low-cost sanitary napkins and making them accessible to women in semi-rural and urban areas. Or a for-profit model to market a product that reduces carbon emissions from diesel generators. For-profit ventures are bringing better managerial and technical skills which social sectors need in order to address major issues. Moreover, these for-profit ventures are also aiding the corporate side, along with NGOs, to help them build and enforce effective organizational and governance models.

5. Technology and Innovation Will Play a Major Role in Addressing Structural Issues in the Social Sector

For the social sector, adopting technology can facilitate a much-needed departure from the traditional mode of operating, to a more agile, transparent, and efficient way. Technology can address the structural issues within the social sector through solutions that streamline the way organizations interact, create greater transparency, digitize and automate workflows, etc. At the same time, technology can enable corporates to collate, access, and analyze data, which can help decision-makers assess the consistency between the ethical values companies endorse and their actions supporting the same.

Source: Entrepreneur

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