The Rio+20 conference witnessed the official launch of the Impact Investing Policy Collaborative, a network of researchers and practitioners working to shape public policies that create more effective capital markets for impact investing.
The co-conveners invited 35 of us from 15 countries to share the different paths we have taken to help direct private capital for the public good. Not surprisingly, the presentations from the US and Britain reinforced their leadership roles through the innovative use of public and private resources to build an ecosystem that supports impact investing, social enterprises and entrepreneurship.
A US-Brazil partnership fosters public-private sector collaboration to create sustainable and equitable urban communities, using Rio de Janeiro and Philadelphia as pilot cities. The project showcased the use of public policy to promote impact investing at the highest level.
Britain's Big Society Capital, capitalised with GBP600 million (HK$7.2 billion) over a five-year period, is acting as a cornerstone investor to develop ways to provide working capital to the social investment sector.
More unexpected was the presentation from Ghana, detailing its government's decision in 2004 to seed the creation of the Ghana Venture Capital Trust Fund. Since then, the trust has raised more than US$50 million in private funding, invested US$23 million in 46 small and medium-sized enterprises and created more than 1,000 formal sector jobs.
These bold examples of public-private partnerships contrast with our government's efforts to date.
At Rio, I shared how a Hong Kong 'we know best' government, the largest provider of grants for vulnerable communities, is largely excluding private intermediaries instead of using its vast resources to create an ecosystem to promote impact investing and social innovation.