socioeconomic growth box as well,” said Khoja. “What I learned through that model, in all different countries, that it is possible to operate at the highest level so that not only does your product and service give impact, but the value changes that you bring in and the way that you do business and the way you engage the entire ecosystem can be very impactful. There are multiple avenues for impact, and through that work I have found that many organisations were coming to me and saying how do we look at profit with this
lens, and how do we pool our resources? I then set up Better Business Enterprise in 2012 to help private sector, governments, non-profits, investors and family officers to look at investment through this lens.” Odeh, too, work s d irectly on development of impact businesses, and has found challenges in making sure the ideas, though well-intentioned, are also sustainable past the initial five-year window. “I bring a global development and international development background in my career. I have worked in the US as well as in MEA in focusing on economic development , social development , working with governments, NGOs and private sector companies on how they would like to bring development to these areas. Some of the things we have seen in the international development sector is that you aren’t as sustainable as you’d like to be. The donor will come in, make an investment, sit for five years, but then once they leave, the organisation is not able to sustain the contact and operational expertise to make the initiative continue,” said Odeh. Henyon is well-versed in the space. “I been working on impact investment for almost 20 years on Wall Street and working in microfinance for 10 years. The NextWave impact fund is based in the US, and we invest in early stage impact businesses that can work across sectors such as agriculture, financial services, food, energy, water, education and more. Since I have been in the space, the sector is really maturing, and I’ve been very impressed by the types that I’ve been seeing,” said Henyon. “The elephant in the room is why is every single panel not about social impact, why is every investment not focused on how it’s going to impact the environment and its society?” said Mullally. According to Chow, it is a combination of confusion and trouble in direct measurement of impact. “There’s a real philosophical debate that says that if you invest in social impact that takes away from philanthropy and that if you do invest in that space, how measurable is it? These questions make people shy away,” said Chow.
Khoja believes that much of the trouble that the space has had in the past is all sectors have not been working together to the degree they need to on the problem. “We’re coming along a continuum. There are push and pull factors. I think we’ve been through a capitalistic model and it’s not really worked tremendously well. People have become distrustful of it. The next generation of investors are demanding that it be a fairer player field and a more inclusive playing field. I think women are also becoming more engaged, and are bringing that social impact lens in. There’s a great deal of learning that’s coming through. “To tackle some of the hardest problems that we are facing today, it’s not a one sector or a one person journey. The government needs the private sector and SMEs. We need a multi-sector, multi-discipline approach. The measurement of that is behind but it is coming along. In one of my projects in Afghanistan, the measurements were, how much of the GDP did we create? How many jobs did we create? How many SMEs did we help create?” said Khoja. While many focus on philanthropy, believing that is a better way to affect society than investment for profit, according to Alaa, philanthropic donations do not guarantee impact. “I think the biggest misconception is that if I’m making a philanthropic donation, that will create social impact. If I’m going to make an investment, I’m trying to make a profit, so how can that be linked to helping a community, or a farm in Kenya? If you look at the donor space, globalisation has allowed youth in Somalia to learn the same skillsets as those in the US.
WHERE TO INVEST
One company that is ripe for investment is one that Odeh works with in Somalia. “I want to share an example—SolarGen Technology Solutions. It is the sole solar power solutions provider in Somalia, which has been ravaged by conflict. As recently as last month, they launched a solar powered water plant, which is actually able to create more water than the government is able to bring in. This month they are going to launch
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