Dear Friends,

One of the holidays that I embraced wholeheartedly during my two decades in the US was Thanksgiving. I loved that it was a holiday for everyone, regardless of religious affiliation, to say ‘Thanks’ to our loved ones and to acknowledge how blessed each one of us is in many different ways. This week as the US is celebrating Thanksgiving, I would like to embrace the holiday from Asia and thank all our partners and supporters for enabling us to create social capital markets at local and regional levels across Asia. 

We have seen through our work that while the social finance/impact investing space needs greater public policy involvement, there is much opportunity at the local level to generate momentum for these policy initiatives. Many of our partners have seized the opportunity, and as a result, the seeds of a larger impact investing ecosystem have been planted. This has happened in various ways through the work of International NGOs, multilateral financial institutions, cultural institutions, communities, organizations, and individuals. Thus, this Impact Quarterly is for us to say, ‘Thank you’ to all the local initiatives that we have learned about or are fortunate to be a part of.

As you are starting to wind down 2012, take a moment to see what you can do in a local level to create sustainable change – be it as an Impact Leader, getting involved with a local Social Enterprise, or simply visiting a country not only for the usual R & R but also to get to know the community needs. 

Have a wonderful Holiday Season and enjoy our last Impact Quarterly for the year.

From the beautiful island of Singapore which is even more beautiful with all the recent rains, Eid, Diwali and Christmas decorations,

Durreen Shahnaz

Founder

IIX and Shujog

Impact Investing Practices

From Philanthropy to Impact Investing: The Role of Women Investors in Asia

There is a historical gender-bias in investment and finance, with women often considered "too soft" and "not enough returns-focused", whereas their comparative strengths in leadership positions and their importance as a key consumer is often overlooked. This explains the extremely low proportion of women investors across the globe, and especially in Asia.

Read the entire article here>>

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Transition Town: Alternative Currencies for Local Growth

There are people in Adelaide, Ann Arbor and Arles, Bangkok, Barcelona and Boston, Cape Town, Cambridge and Chennai, and Limerick and London — all part of the global grassroots Transition Initiative sprouting up around the planet. So, what is Transition anyway? According to a recent issue of the venerable UK magazine, Resurgence, “it is an extraordinary movement giving rise to an ever growing list of amazing and inspiring grass-roots projects…a 21st Century global phenomenon that continues to expand and thrive. A movement that politicians and other world leaders are sitting up and paying attention to.”

Read the entire article here>>

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Building Social Enterprise Skills at the Local Level

Image Source: British Council. 

The British Council, the UK's international organization for educational opportunities and cultural relations, works with social innovators through a global program called Skills for Social Entrepreneurs. The program is delivered through partnerships with private, public, and third sector organizations and seeks to leverage the Council's convening power across sectors and presence in over 100 countries as well as the UK's experience as a hub of social innovation (Last year, Social Enterprises provided over one million jobs and contributed £24 billion to the UK economy). 

Read more about the Social Enterprise Skills program here>>

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Six Steps to becoming an Impact Leader

A growing number of philanthropists and investors are allocating their capital into investments that generate positive social and environmental impact in addition to financial return. Whether investors are searching for a more efficient and sustainable way to pursue philanthropy or looking to simply diversify their investment portfolios through a new asset class, we see some interesting trends emerging from investment decisions of impact investors. It also clearly points out which investors are emerging as ‘Impact Leaders’ in the space. See for yourself if you have it in you to become an ‘Impact Leader’.

Read the rest of the Six Steps to becoming an Impact Leader here>>

In Photos

IIX and Shujog on the Road

From top left, clockwise: (1) Shujog's Magnus Young presenting at the Asian Solidarity Economic Forum 2012 in Manado, Indonesia; (2) IIX Director and Head of Investor Team En Lee at Give to Asia's 10th Anniversary with Give to Asia President and CEO Barnett F. Baron, Jed Emerson, and Give to Asia Director Al Njoo; (3) Three of IIX's staff on field in Dhaka; (4) IIX Director and Head of Social Enterprise Team Raya Papp at the Ateneo-PhilSEN Social Enterprise Conference in Manila; (5) Prof. Durreen Shahnaz (seated, second from left) in a panel at the Milken Institute Summit in London; (6) IIX at Toniic's annual gathering; and (7) IIX Managing Director Rob Kraybill and En Lee at the GSIF Gala Dinner in Singapore.

Sector News

© Energy for All.

Paving the Road for Sustainable Energy for All

The majority of the world's poor live in Asia and the Pacific region, with over 700 million people having no access to electricity and 1.9 billion still burning primitive fuels for heating and cooking. This widespread energy poverty challenges the gains Asia has made in terms of economic growth – although Asian economies have grown strongly over the past few decades, it is clear that this growth has not been felt by all, especially the rural poor.



Read the entire article here>> 

Partner Feature

© CARE. 



Bridging the Gap between Development Programming and Social Enterprise Creation

CARE International is one of the world’s largest international development NGOs, and has promoted sustainable solutions to poverty issues in the most marginalized areas of the world for more than 65 years. Directly reaching more than 82 million people annually, in over 87 countries, they work alongside communities to provide people, especially women, with appropriate resources to lift themselves out of poverty.

Read the entire article here>>

SE Series

© Bagosphere.

Getting to know the Social Entrepreneur: An Interview with Zhihan Lee, Co-founder of BagoSphere

Impact Quarterly (IQ) recently interviewed Zhihan Lee to know more about the story of the Social Entrepreneur behind BagoSphere, the award-winning vocational training enterprise that provides affordable and effective training programs specifically catered to rural, low-income youth. Read on as Zhihan shares what brought him to start BagoSphere with his co-founders, Ivan Lau and Ellwyn Tan, and what his experience in starting a pilot program and raising capital has taught him. 

Read the interview here>> 

View from the Field

© IIX. 

In the Eyes of Dhaka

In 2013, IIX will be embarking on several partnership opportunities with some of the world's largest NGOs, some of which are in Bangladesh. To continue to drive momentum forward, I, as part of the IIX Business Development team, was very lucky to travel to Dhaka in October to see firsthand how our regional work can translate on a local level in one of the oldest and most effective social enterprise markets in Asia. Being there during Durga Puja and Eid-ul-Adha was an intense experience that I will also remember. 

Read the rest of the article here>>