Click here to have a read. We’d love to know what you think!

This conviction has shaped all of the intensive work we have done with our partners since the onset of the Covid-19 crisis.

Across the portfolio, our partners (with support from the Bridges team) have been finding innovative new solutions to protect their people, adapt their business or service models, and support those hardest-hit by the crisis.

Some have expanded their existing services to help the most vulnerable. Some are utilising spare capacity to provide time, expertise or resources to organisations on the front-line of the crisis. And some have been busy raising philanthropic funding to help their local community. Here are just a few of our favourite examples:

Adapting to support those in need

Although most of the schools served by Impact Food Group have (largely) closed down, the business has still been extremely active in supporting its local communities – by converting canteens into mini-markets for key workers (an innovation that may persist), by providing lunches to other local schools and children who are eligible for free school meals, and by supplying food to front-line NHS staff. These measures will help IFG to stand apart from its competitors and build important new relationships locally.

Similarly, our Single Homeless Prevention Service in London has also expanded its remit since the Government committed to freezing evictions and moving all rough sleepers into temporary accommodation for the duration of the lockdown. SHPS has been working with these very vulnerable individuals to support their transition into long-term accommodation, as well as helping them them access benefits and other services.

West London Zone has launched a ‘Bridging the Gap’ fundraising appeal to raise extra funds so it can support local families that are being hardest-hit by the crisis. It is aiming to raise £35,000, which it intends to use to help parents/carers support their children through the challenges ahead. This could mean providing food or other basic goods, or supplying technology and other resources to support online learning, or even offering language support to help them better understand their options. West London Zone has almost reached its target already, but it’s not too late to donate if you would like to: just click HERE.

Kirklees Better Outcomes Partnership, a community support service for vulnerable people in West Yorkshire, has launched a dedicated Covid-19 service to offer support to those who would not have been referred into the service otherwise. Mobilised within a few days of the lockdown and drawing on the resources of all nine of our delivery partners, this service provides ongoing advice and emergency support (like food parcels), while also providing central coordination for services like foodbanks that rely on volunteers. By providing this service to the Local Authority, we are cementing our ongoing partnership while also driving better outcomes for some of the people most at risk from the virus.

Click here to have a read. We’d love to know what you think!

This conviction has shaped all of the intensive work we have done with our partners since the onset of the Covid-19 crisis.

Across the portfolio, our partners (with support from the Bridges team) have been finding innovative new solutions to protect their people, adapt their business or service models, and support those hardest-hit by the crisis.

As a result of the lockdown, many of them have had to totally overhaul the way they deliver their services almost overnight. Below are just a few of the inspiring ways they have been rising to this unprecedented challenge.

New and enhanced services

Vegetarian Express, which primarily supplies plant-based ingredients to the catering industry, was able to launch a direct-to-consumer offering within just a few weeks of lockdown being introduced. This was always a long-term goal, but the company has accelerated its plans in order to help consumers (at a time when these ingredients are hard to buy) and create a new revenue stream (while many of its biggest customers are out of action). Sign up HERE.

Just Ask, a facilities management business that specialises in working for Housing Associations, is providing additional services such as pre- and post- sanitisation cleaning to schemes with confirmed Covid-19 cases. For priority cases like supported housing schemes, it has also increased the frequency of its cleaning service to seven days a week.

AgilityEco, a fuel poverty solutions provider, is adapting its flagship community outreach programme (Local Energy Advice Partnership) to provide even more of its advisory services by telephone, so it can continue to help some of the UK’s most vulnerable households reduce their fuel costs and improve energy efficiency during the lockdown. It is also adapting the advice and support it gives to vulnerable customers to include specific messaging around Covid-19.

New delivery models

The Vet, a low-cost veterinary services business, has launched a new telemedicine offering, which allows pets to get a check-up even during lockdown. If it proves effective, this digital channel could transform the Vet’s offering over time, potentially driving even lower-cost services to pet owners.

Viva Gym and Energie Fitness, our two low-cost gym businesses, have both introduced virtual/ online training sessions, so their members can stay fit even when their gym is closed. This is proving such a big hit with members that Viva is now looking at making it a permanent offering. Viva has also told its members that if they keep paying their monthly fee, Viva will guarantee to spend 50% of it on paying staff during lockdown; 13,000 people have already opted into this, raising €135,000 to cover staff costs (and the same amount in revenue that might otherwise have been lost).

Positive Families Partnerships, our family therapy service that works to prevent young people from being taken into care, has switched quickly to running its sessions remotely during lockdown (providing the families with the required technology if necessary). Lockdown is likely to be particularly challenging for some of these families, so this new model ensures the therapist can keep supporting them throughout.

New Reflexions, a provider of residential care, therapy and education to Looked-After Children, is now offering virtual education and therapy sessions to the young people in its homes, in order to help mitigate the disruptions caused by lockdown.

West London Zone, a charity that works with disadvantaged children, is providing physical supplies and virtual support so all the children it works with can fully benefit from home learning programmes. As well as supporting the young people’s wellbeing in the short term, this potentially creates a new online channel to supplement its service delivery in the future.

Birchgrove, which provides assisted living accommodation for the elderly, a key part of the offer is combating social isolation via communal areas and regular interaction. Although it can only make limited use of these areas at the moment, the Birchgrove team at our first site in Sidcup has been using tablets to make sure residents ‘check in’ twice a day, as well as running virtual events like quizzes and ‘DIY supper clubs’. As a lower-tech alternative, they’ve also launched a pen-pal scheme, whereby residents are exchanging letters with management!

This conviction has shaped all of the intensive work we have done with our partners since the onset of the Covid-19 crisis.

Across the portfolio, our partners (with support from the Bridges team) have been finding innovative new solutions to protect their people, adapt their business or service models, and support those hardest-hit by the crisis.

Many organisations have been forced to furlough staff or move to remote operations almost overnight – which is putting a huge strain on productivity and individuals’ mental health and wellbeing. But we’re really proud of how our partners have found new ways to engage with their teams and provide additional wellbeing support. Here are just a few examples:

Promoting engagement and wellbeing

Vegetarian Express has been working hard to keep its staff engaged by ramping up its internal communications efforts substantially – from team check-ins and regular company-wide briefing notes and calls, to internal social activities like virtual quizzes.

The Vet has also been going to great lengths to maintain the morale and wellbeing of staff during the current restrictions. It recently compiled a video of staff applauding each other (inspired by the Clap for Carers initiative); it has also provided staff with access to a free webinar on mindfulness, as well as sharing information on how to manage anxiety related to Covid-19.

Just Ask has introduced a ‘virtual lunch room’: employees can log on to Microsoft Teams between 1-1.30pm and chat to colleagues, just as they might do in a staff canteen.

Providing Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) for front-line staff

Just Ask also acted quickly to secure a good supply of PPE provision for front-line staff, particularly cleaners at high-risk or priority schemes. This has helped to reassure the team and reduce absenteeism through sickness, ensuring that the business has been able to maintain continuity of service.

The Hub Pharmacy, a full-service community pharmacy group, has also secured a good supply of PPE equipment for pharmacy staff – to the extent that it was recently able to donate some of its capacity to Birchgrove (Bridges Property Funds), for staff working with elderly and vulnerable residents.

Building on these relationships, we have now been able to procure PPE on a portfolio-wide level, so we can buy on a greater scale; this will improve security of supply and ensure that all those across the portfolio working with vulnerable people have the protective equipment they need. We have just completed our first bulk order of 34,000 face masks, for use by a number of our investees, and we’ve circulated a list of recommended suppliers in case any want to order additional stock directly.

Supporting mental health and wellbeing

Shout, a text message counselling service supported by the Bridges Impact Foundation, is providing a dedicated service to front-line NHS workers (as part of a broader package of wellbeing measures commissioned by Government). The goal is to make sure staff who are struggling with the burden of front-line work always have a Shout counsellor to talk to, even late at night or early in the morning.

Cllr Stuart Dark, Chairman of the Children’s Services Committee at Norfolk County Council, said “We know that children do better when they can live safely at home with their families, and this is one of several ways we are working to help families to be resilient and stay together. By providing therapy directly to families, the project can help to heal and build relationships that give children a much brighter future. We want to help families as early as possible, developing their strengths and giving them the support that they need to prevent problems from escalating.”

Family Psychology Mutual will provide the service and will use what is known as Functional Family Therapy Child Welfare (“FFT-CW”), a type of therapy that has had success in the USA, Australia, Singapore and Canada. Stronger Families will work within children’s homes, providing therapy to the whole family. It aims to repair relationships, help families to communicate better and help parents to better support and influence their children.

It is one element of the council’s wider transformation of Children’s Services, which is focused on building strengths in families and getting support to children and families early – ensuring better outcomes for children and mitigating the council’s budget pressures. By safely reducing the numbers of children coming into care, the programme could save the council about £7m over five years.

Stronger Families has been structured as a Social Outcomes Contract. Family Psychology Mutual will deliver the service, with the council committing to pay for any successful outcomes alongside the Government’s Life Chances Fund. Up-front funding and ongoing support will be provided by Bridges Fund Management, a specialist impact investor with extensive experience of arranging and delivering outcomes contracts.

Tom Jefford, Business Development Director for Family Psychology Mutual spokesperson said: “We are building and training a dedicated team to deliver FFT-CW in Norfolk and are confident that we can create sustainable change for families and young people with high needs. We are delighted to be working with the County Council, where our trained workers will be embedded into the Locality Teams. Family Psychology Mutual is a staff-owned social enterprise; we aim to provide evidence-based interventions that are both cost-efficient and effective in achieving the outcomes families want. This is the second FFT-CW site in the UK and we look forward to working with partners in Norfolk.”

Mila Lukic, partner at Bridges, said: “Our previous experience of delivering a similar programme in London has shown that this kind of family therapy is a highly effective way of keeping children out of the care system – which typically drives much better life outcomes for the children and also creates substantial cost savings for the Local Authority. We look forward to drawing on this experience to help more families in Norfolk stay together.”

Mike Robbins, Clinical Director FFT LC, said: “We are pleased to partner with the visionaries at Norfolk County Council and Family Psychology Mutual to bring FFT-CW to England.  FFT-CW has a track record helping families adjust and flourish in the face of devastating problems, such as violence, abuse, and neglect, and we are excited to work with these excellent partners to find ways to help youth and families in the local community.

“Also, the innovation of funding the project through the first Social Outcomes Contract for FFT-CW has generated the attention and interest from child service providers well beyond England.”

Notes for editors 

About Family Psychology Mutual

Family Psychology Mutual Community Interest Company is a staff owned social enterprise, also known as a public service mutual, which was created by staff from Cambridgeshire County Council and the NHS.  Now fully independent, the company specialises in evidence based, family interventions with established work in London and Cambridgeshire and new services being established in Suffolk and now Norfolk.  This is the first FFT CW team for FPM.

About Bridges

Bridges Fund Management (formerly Bridges Ventures) is a specialist fund manager focused exclusively on sustainable and impact investment. Since 2002, the firm has raised over £900m to invest in solutions to society’s biggest challenges. In 2012, Bridges raised the first fund anywhere in the world dedicated to supporting social outcomes contracts; it has since backed almost 30 of these projects in the UK alone, working with over 50 public sector commissioners.

About the Life Chances Fund

The Life Chances Fund (LCF) is an £80 million top-up fund, whose objective is to help those people in society who face the most significant barriers to leading happy and productive lives. This forms part of the Prime Minister’s life chances approach.

The £80 million has been committed by central Government to contribute towards outcome payments for payment-by-results contracts supported by socially-minded investors – also known as social impact bonds (SIBs) or Social Outcomes Contracts (SOCs). These contracts must be locally commissioned and aim to tackle complex social problems.

Social outcomes contracts are increasingly used by Government to commission vital social services from mission-driven providers. Instead of the traditional ‘fee for service’ approach, these contracts are structured so that the commissioner pays directly for improvements in social outcomes. This gives the provider more freedom to design and adapt the programme, to ensure better outcomes for some of the most vulnerable people in society.

Bridges works with commissioners and providers to structure the contracts, provides the working capital necessary to fund the programme, and supports management to deliver the best possible results.

In 2012, Bridges raised the first fund anywhere in the world dedicated to these contracts, and has since directly supported over 30 projects, committing more than £30m (including £8m from the new fund). These projects include providing family therapy to children on the edge of care; helping people to manage long-term health conditions via social prescribing; supporting young people at risk of homelessness; and providing intensive mentoring and counselling to disadvantaged children who are struggling at school. Collectively, they are on course to deliver over £150m of value to Government.

For its second fund, Bridges originally targeted £25m, with a hard cap of £30m. However, strong demand from a broad range of impact-driven investors meant the fund was significantly over-subscribed; and since the pipeline of available opportunities was also stronger than initially expected, Bridges sought and received consent to raise this hard cap to £35m.

Investors to commit to the new fund include dedicated social investors like Big Society Capital and Project Snowball; charitable foundations such as Guy’s and St. Thomas’ Charity, Trust for London, Pilotlight and The Prince of Wales’s Charitable Fund; local Government pension schemes including Merseyside Pension Fund, global business insurer QBE (as part of its Premiums4Good initiative); and Ceniarth, a single-family office focused on underserved communities.

Mila Lukic, Head of Social Outcomes Contracts at Bridges, said: “In the last few years there’s been a real evolution in the way Government is using outcomes contracts. The early ‘social impact bonds’ were used to test experimental new services on a relatively small scale. The new generation of social outcomes contracts are more about promoting greater flexibility and innovation in the delivery of existing services, using a data-driven approach that helps us better understand how to improve outcomes at scale for some of the most vulnerable people in the country.

“We are proud of the role we’ve played since 2012 in building this promising market, and we’re grateful for the renewed support of our investors as we look to continue this progress and scale our impact. They share our conviction that outcomes-based approaches are a highly impactful way to address acute social challenges, both directly and by acting as a catalyst for policy and system change.”

Aman Johal, Investment Director, Big Society Capital, commented: “Since launching the world’s first dedicated Social Impact Bond Fund in 2012, Bridges have established themselves as a driving force of the U.K. outcomes contract market.

“Big Society Capital is therefore pleased to have committed £13.65 million to Bridges’ second social outcomes contract fund. With contracts being launched across children’s services, homelessness and health and social care, the fund will tackle some of society’s most entrenched issues with a focus on those with the most complex needs. We were particularly pleased to see a wide range of both new and existing investors taking part in the fund, which we believe has the potential to support positive social change.”These projects are also having a broader systemic impact by changing the way health and social outcomes are commissioned and achieved. For example, the social prescribing programme is helping the NHS to invest in prevention. Similarly, the housing support programmes are helping to pull together a number of different public services in a flexible, tailored way, to better meet the varied needs of those in housing need.

Bridges has also been applying its experience and market-leading expertise to development impact bonds, which are essentially social outcomes contracts in developing markets, commissioned by donors and philanthropic funders. The team recently supported Village Enterprise as it raised money to deliver a poverty alleviation programme in sub-Saharan Africa, and has also been working with the European Bank of Reconstruction & Development on a potential youth unemployment programme in West Bank and Gaza.

In this blog, Michele examines how outcomes contracts can deliver better value for commissioners and better outcomes for beneficiaries.

Read the post here.

Healthier Devon, an innovative new support programme designed to prevent people developing Type 2 diabetes, has been launched in Devon this week to coincide with National Diabetes Week.

Nationally, diabetes-related treatment accounts for about 10% of all NHS spending . In Devon alone, there are around 79,000 people at risk of developing Type 2 diabetes – and this number is increasing nationally by about 3% per year.
However, many of the risk factors associated with developing Type 2 diabetes are preventable through lifestyle changes. Healthier Devon will work with around 3,500 people at the highest risk of developing the condition. Once referred by their GP, these people will receive sustained help over a two-year period to make positive changes to their lifestyle – to include nutrition, physical exercise and mental wellbeing – via a combination of one-to-one and group sessions.

Healthier Devon has been developed and commissioned by Devon County Council and Bridges Fund Management (through its Social Impact Bond Fund), with support from the Big Lottery Fund using National Lottery funding. Exeter-based charity Westbank has been selected to deliver the programme, which will work on a payment-by-results basis – so the council will only make payments if individuals enrolled on the programme show a sustained drop in their weight, their waist circumference and their HbA1c (blood sugars) reading. Devon is the first local authority in the UK to adopt this pioneering approach to diabetes prevention.

Cllr Roger Croad, Devon County Council’s Cabinet Member for Health and Wellbeing, said:
“This programme, which is the first of its type in the UK offering two years of sustained support, has the potential to make a significant impact on the health of our local population. Diabetes is one of the biggest preventable diseases, both nationally and in Devon. By tackling it early enough, the programme not only enables people to turn their health outcomes around in the short term, but also provides the support to help people sustain long-term changes to their lifestyle, and their health.”

Jaine Keable, Head of Health and Wellbeing at Westbank, said:
“Healthier Devon is a great outcome from our piloted work through the BIG Lottery funding, and clinical trials supporting those at risk of developing Type 2 diabetes. Our programme support will provide participants with the knowledge, ability and confidence to make changes to their lifestyle so that they get the best chance to reduce their risk of the condition.”

Mila Lukic, partner at Bridges, said:
“By launching this ground-breaking new programme, Devon is showing a real commitment to innovative and impact-driven commissioning. When organisations like Westbank are rewarded on the basis of outcomes they have much more flexibility to tailor their programmes to meet specific local needs. We think this will make it easier for Westbank to help people in Devon avoid developing diabetes – which over time will also reduce the demand on local primary and secondary care services.”

Patients who are eligible to join Healthier Devon will be referred for an appointment by their GP surgery through the Devon Referral Support Service.

The Bridges Social Impact Bond Fund team has now helped to design and deliver 25 social outcomes contracts in the UK, which are on track to deliver over £100m of value to more than 50 different central and local government commissioners.

NOTES

Devon County Council is the largest local authority in South West England. There are around 79,000 people in the county currently classed as being at risk of developing Type 2 diabetes. https://new.devon.gov.uk/

Westbank Community Health & Care works with communities and individuals across Devon. Key activities include: health and wellbeing services, a diabetes management and prevention programme, cardiac rehab support and a fully accessible fitness suite; support for isolated and vulnerable people; and a countywide contract to provide information and support for carers. All of this is underpinned by volunteers, of which Westbank has more than 650, who contributed over 31,000 hours during 2017. Westbank is a registered charity established in 1986, with its head office in Exminster, Devon. For more information please see: www.westbank.org.uk

More on Bridges’ social outcomes contracts

Village Enterprise has raised US $3.5m of working capital from private investors and philanthropic sources to provide first-time entrepreneurs who live in extreme poverty with seed capital, training and mentoring to start more than 4,600 small sustainable businesses in rural Kenya and Uganda by 2020. If Village Enterprise successfully improves the income levels for these new business owners, outcome payers will repay up to $4.28 million based on an innovative pay-for-success structure.

Despite decades of development work and billions of dollars expended, over 760 million people still live in extreme poverty, over half of whom live in sub-Saharan Africa. “Eliminating poverty is a global priority, but funding is limited,” said Village Enterprise’s CEO Dianne Calvi. “Mobilizing private capital is critical if we are to achieve the United Nation’s #1 Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) of ending extreme poverty by 2030.”

Providing Investors and Donors with Results

To address this challenge, Village Enterprise, an NGO working to end extreme poverty in rural Africa, and Instiglio, a pioneer in results-based financing that led the design of the DIB, are partnering with private impact investors and the world’s two largest development agencies, the United States Agency for International Development’s Development Innovation Ventures (USAID DIV) and the U.K. Department for International Development (DFID) on the Village Enterprise Development Impact Bond.

For this DIB, nine impact investors, including the Delta Fund, the Laidir Foundation, the Silicon Valley Social Venture Fund, the Bridges Impact Foundation and several individual investors, are providing the working capital for Village Enterprise to equip 13,800 rural Africans who currently live on less than US $1.90 a day with the resources to become successful entrepreneurs. Outcome funders USAID and DFID will pay Village Enterprise and its investors based on results achieved rather than the traditional model of payment upon program delivery. This pay-for-success model guarantees that donor money will be linked to measurable increases in consumption and net assets (as a proxy for income). This DIB leverages a new and innovative ‘outcomes fund’ hosted by Global Development incubator (GDI), which will hold all funds in escrow and consolidate all contracting, cashflow and processing through a single efficient and scalable platform.

The Bridges Impact Foundation is the philanthropic arm of Bridges Fund Management (“Bridges”), a specialist sustainable and impact investor. The Bridges funds support a range of solutions to pressing societal challenges, including 27 social impact bonds (SIBs), about half of the total commissioned in the U.K. to date.

Michele Giddens, co-founder and partner at Bridges and a trustee of the Bridges Impact Foundation, said, “We’ve seen from our SIB investments in the U.K. that this approach drives better outcomes for vulnerable people by giving providers more freedom to innovate and tailor their program to local needs. So we are excited to invest in the first DIB to address the SDG of ending extreme poverty, and are hopeful it can have a transformative effect.”

Comparing this DIB to others being launched in international development, Avnish Gungadurdoss, Managing Partner of Instiglio, noted, “This DIB, which pays Village Enterprise for improvements in income levels of extreme poor households, is remarkable because of the ambitious outcomes it incentivizes. By tying funds to such ambitious outcomes and providing full flexibility for Village Enterprise to innovate on its program design and delivery practices, this DIB aims to enable a leap in the program’s cost-effectiveness. We also hope to generate important lessons on how to effectively commission, adapt and scale promising poverty alleviation programs.”

Improving Cost-Effectiveness and Scalability

Brian and Katie Boland are investing US $1 million in this DIB through their Delta Fund. A statement issued by the Fund reads: “Village Enterprise is an exceptional organizational that practices data-driven decision-making and has proven impact. Having visited their operations in Uganda, we know that their staff is committed to the kind of ongoing learning and innovation required to move the needle on a problem of this magnitude.”

Village Enterprise’s program includes targeting, training, mentoring, seed capital in the form of cash grants, and saving groups. Innovations for Poverty Action recently completed a randomized controlled trial (RCT) of the program that demonstrated increases in assets and consumption, as well as subjective well-being and nutrition, among program participants. Based on the strength of this RCT evidence, Village Enterprise was selected as the service provider for this impact bond, with the RCT results serving as the benchmark for success.

An additional RCT conducted by IDinsight is under way to independently validate DIB outcomes. According to CEO Dr. Neil Buddy Shah, “As we have done with other high-profile DIBs, IDinsight is designing and implementing a randomized evaluation to independently and rigorously measure the impact of Village Enterprise’s poverty alleviation efforts. This evaluation will ensure that DIB payments are tied to robustly measured outcomes. IDinsight will also provide Village Enterprise with vital data to optimize program learning and improvement through the DIB.”

The longer-term goal is to scale the poverty alleviation outcomes fund to increase the pool of capital available for poverty reduction and job creation programs while ensuring that measurable results are achieved. According to GDI director Alice Gugelev, “Efforts are underway to scale the outcomes fund in order to address existing challenges with impact bonds such as high processing costs and complex documentation. In the scale-up, the outcomes fund plans to engage additional high caliber service providers like Village Enterprise and increase impact through this innovative and efficient mechanism.”

***

About Village Enterprise
Village Enterprise seeks to end extreme poverty in rural Africa through entrepreneurship and innovation. Working in rural Sub Saharan Africa, the Village Enterprise “Graduation” program provides business and financial training, ongoing mentoring, seed capital grants and business savings networks to individuals who live on less than $1.90/day. Village Enterprise has started over 43,000 businesses, trained over 169,000 first time entrepreneurs and positively impacted the lives of over 940,000 people. Village Enterprise has a 4-star rating from Charity Navigator, a platinum rating from Guidestar and is endorsed by The Life You Can Save and ImpactMatters as a cost-effective, high-impact charity.

About Instiglio
Instiglio is a non-profit firm dedicated to thoughtfully expanding the use of Results-Based Financing (RBF) in international development, including the pioneering of impact bonds and outcome funds in emerging markets. By focusing funding on results, RBF introduces a new and sustained improvement in the standards of performance for the public and social sector; ultimately unlocking the potential of the world’s most vulnerable people. Instiglio has worked in over 18 countries in Latin America and Africa, partnering with country governments and major funders on how to achieve greater outcomes in education, poverty alleviation, workforce development, and health – among other issue areas.

About Global Development Incubator (GDI)
The Global Development Incubator is a non-profit that builds startups and partnerships to address some of the world’s toughest global development challenges. We play a mix of the strategist and implementer role to get game-changing ideas off the ground over 24-36 months. Throughout each stage of our process, we bring together the right partners across sectors – including corporations, nonprofits, governments, and foundations – to help new initiatives scale their impact and prepare for long-term success. Above all, we turn talk into action by matching ambitious leaders, strong concepts, and funding with the executional power required to launch and scale large social change efforts.

About IDinsight
IDinsight’s mission is to help policymakers and practitioners use rigorous data and evidence to make more socially impactful decisions. We carefully tailor a wide range of quantitative tools to help our clients design better public policies, rigorously test those ideas, and take informed action to improve lives at scale. IDinsight leads learning partnerships across Asia and Africa, working with governments, multilaterals, foundations, social businesses, and innovative NGOs to generate and use evidence to improve their impact. IDinsight works across a range of sectors, including education, financial access, governance, agriculture, health, and
sanitation and in over a dozen countries and has offices in Dakar, Johannesburg, Lusaka, Manila, Nairobi, New Delhi, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C.

Within the portfolio, we have seen record levels of growth – and continued to deliver some powerful social and environmental impact. This report draws out some of these stories in more detail, but just to take a few headline figures from across the portfolio this year, our investments have:

• Delivered 1.3m hours of quality care
• Provided healthcare services to almost 40,000 people
• Helped over 2,600 children achieve better educational outcomes
• Averted more than 30,000 tonnes of carbon emissions
• Supported over 2,600 jobs

2017 has also seen a continued rise in the number of new entrants coming into sustainable and impact investing. This is a hugely exciting trend; and a much-needed one, given the scale of the problems we face. But it presents a challenge, too: as these new entrants join the field, all with their own goals, metrics and methodologies, how do we make sure that everyone thinks and talks about ‘impact’ in a broadly similar way? If we fail to get this right, there’s a real risk that expectations may become misaligned and different actors along the impact value chain may end up disappointed.

A key part of the answer, we believe, is the Impact Management Project: an industry-wide effort (facilitated by Bridges Impact+) to agree on some common fundamentals for how we talk about and manage impact. Our report this year includes a special section that introduces some of the key concepts emerging from the Impact Management Project, and explains how this emerging consensus is informing our own approach as an investor.

Read the report here:  (screen view)  (print view)

Read the Guardian’s take on it here.