SOCAP13 Session Recap: The Role of Government in Impact Investing

 
Watch Jonathan Greenblatt, White House Office of Social Innovation and Civic Participation and Matt Bannick, Omidyar Network discuss the role of government in impact investing. Moderated by Maya Chorengel of Elevar Equity.
This portion of the plenary session discussed the focus on impact investing and social entrepreneurship at the G8 conference. The discussion covered how impact investing could be used as a strategy for accelerating economic recovery and global development.
Food for thought from this session: 

1. Impact investing is attracting attention at all levels and around the world. For the first time ever at the G8 conference there was a full-day forum with representatives from countries including France, Germany, Italy, and Japan.
2. The conference had attendees from individuals from the public, private and nonprofit sectors committed to identifying solutions that could be scaled up and ways that market failures could be addressed. Question on their mind: How can we bring the best of all three sectors to create an environment not just in the US – where the POTUS has stated that it’s an economic strategy – but globally, to move the impact investment sector forward?
3. Attendees of SOCAP13 were among the first to learn that one of the outcomes of the G8 meeting was the creation of a new taskforce – the Social Impact Investment Taskforce – which will be chaired by Sir Ronald Cohen, founder and chair of Big Society Capital! The goal will be to grow the global market for social investment. This taskforce is committed to an OECD report focused on the current international market for social investment.