During the 7th Civil Society Organizational Development Forum, within the framework of the panel "Sustainability and Confidence in Communities through Impact Investing”, supported by the International Renaissance Foundation, business and public sector reprersentatives discussed how business invetsments can develop civil society.
During the 7th Civil Society Organizational Development Forum, within the framework of the panel “Sustainability and Confidence in Communities through Impact Investing”, supported by the International Renaissance Foundation, business and public sector reprersentatives discussed how business invetsments can develop civil society.
Disscussion participants shared their vision of impact-investing as investment in business projects that not only help to achieve commercial goals, but actually solve social problems in the community. Business people particicpating in the discussion explain their motiviation to pursue projects in the social sector: they have a natural desire to create a comfortable environment around them, making their cities comfortable for life, and attractive for visitors. They said impact investing becomes possible when a company invests in something more than just a commercial activity. Much as such investments develop a social or cultural environment, they also, at a later stage, bring new opportunities for entrepreneurial activity and obtaining profit.
One of the speakers, Vasyl Nazaruk, the head of the Western NIS Enterprise Fund social investment program, noted that social entrepreneurship helps solving problems that the authorities simply cannot solve, considering lack of possibilities or resources. The development of social entrepreneurship is not happening “because someone just wants it, but because there is simply no alternative to it in principle”. And this process is not actually Ukrainian, indeed, it is spreading all over the world.
A well-known Lviv restaurateur, social activist, co-owner of “Kumpel Group” Mark Zarkhin spoke about partnership of civil society, business and authorities required for the implementation of the strategy “Lviv is a creative city”. He said that impact investing is taking place in Lviv so that people do not feel themselves as such that “are going to Europe, but as the ones that actually live in Europe“. In his opinion, investments in the development of the social environment allow entrepreneurs to develop their “business culture, human culture and all other facets of culture”, at the same time raising their own and overall level of community well-being.
A founder and trainer of the ADVANCE project Nikolai Latushkin drew attention of the Forum participants to the fact that “Impact investing is not only about influence, but also about building trust. When you invest, you get trust in return, and it can cost so much more than the money you have invested”. And trust in society is one of the main components of social capital.
The discussion arrived at a conclusion that an important precondition for an impact investment project to succeed is the engament of the community into a project implementation as a full-fledged partner. Program Director of Lviv Bienniale of Trust Eugenia Nestorovich talked about the importance and an “ability to talk directly” between business, community and the authorities. An example of such interaction at the crossroads of all sectors was the Biennale of Trust project.
Among the most important and potentially successful directions of impact-investing in Ukraine in the coming years, according to experts, may be projects to solve problems of wartime participants and internally displaced persons, as well as projects in the field of employment, energy saving, and providing social services in a broad sense. The discussion participants expect to see the emergence of impact investment projects that are built on synergy and are naturally integrated into the community development programs where they are established.
