We have debated before that social entrepreneurship may give the misleading impression that it's an elite field in the West, current development in impact investment has actually started to resemble more like it. Impact investors from the West seem to be in the ideal position to lead the field with top investment expertise, financial backing and the ability to form extensive network to develop impact investmet market. It has no doubt attracted a large elite group of western investors, bankers, consultants and intellectuals who now play the role of social change agents, with exclusive networking events and forums specifically designed for them to discuss about using for-profit investment to tackle social issues while earning a return.
Indeed, they are the key players but it's really not about who's leading impact investment but the important question is what's actually the right direction to advance the field? Is impact investment supposed to be so exclusive even if it concerns with alleviating poverty in remote regions globally? Along the way, will it contradict the bottom-up approach that we always advocate? Organization like SOCAP has started to make an effort to make impact investment forum more social enterprise-centric but I believe we should not ignore the effort to develop ongoing dialogue with poor communities on the ground who we're supposed to serve. It should complement our call for rigorous standard in post-social impact reporting to understand how impact investment really works.
Monday, January 17, 2011
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