Call for Abstracts: The Handbook of Impact Investing
Publisher: Palgrave MacMillan
Editors:
Elsa de Morais Sarmento, Research Associate at NOVAFRICA, Nova Business School of Management and Economics (Portugal). Consultant for IFC/World Bank Group and European Commission
Christian Kingombe, Advisor (former Lead) at Impact Investing Exchange (IIX) Chapter Lusaka (Zambia) & Research Associate at Centre for Socio-Economic Development CSEND (Switzerland). Member of Editorial Boards of Global Economy Review and African Journal of Economic Review (AJER)
Thibaut Mourgues, Public-Private Partnerships Advisor, African Development Bank
Scope
Impact Investing (II) has been attracting incremental attention since 2007 when the term was coined. It defines an investment approach whose primary objective is to produce positive social and environmental impact, with the potential to create measurable real value for both investors and society, along with a financial return. The power of II lies in its ability to simultaneously embrace profits, development, social inclusion, and financial-technology innovation. II has acted over the last 10 years, since the creation of a formal impact investing industry, a first-line offense against poverty and exclusion, by giving investments more purpose and direction. II as a global megatrend has been reshaping the way investments are made by private impact investors encompassing a range of investor types, including fund managers, family offices, foundations, banks, pension funds, and others that channel private capital into impact investments.
This Handbook adds a new perspective to the existing literature, by its comprehensiveness and by drawing on new themes of development, poverty, and gender and connecting these to sustainable development and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as well as the COP21 agreement.
It looks into the evolution of II over time to focus on factors informing investing decisions and portfolio, tackling risks, returns and impact, considering the industry's standards and certification, providing an overview of the needs of public policy to influence the impact investing ecosystem, amassing best practices, providing an in-depth analysis of results frameworks and metrics for measuring and reporting impacts, providing experiences and success stories from around the globe with a gender and disadvantaged groups lens and considerations for the base of the pyramid, and by finally pointing the way forward through innovation, future opportunities and the links to sustainable development initiatives.
The objective of this Handbook is to offer a view of how II is already providing an integrated alternative towards the creation of more inclusive markets, fighting poverty through wealth creation, fostering regional and national cohesion and works in favour of countries competitiveness and inclusiveness objectives within the Global SDG Framework. This Handbook will explain how II has been working globally, how different frameworks are being created and evolving to measure its impact, and what is left to do to take full advantage of it. Moreover, the Handbook offers targeted, practical advice and tools on how to engage as an impact investor, bearing in mind that many different types of impact investors pursue a variety of impact objectives and financial return targets, or encourage the impact investing community at large as a policy-maker or institutional actor, either on the public or private sector side of the arena.
Core Themes and Topics
Without being prescriptive, we would expect the range of topics to be explored to include at least some of the following:
Part I. The Perimeter of the Impact Investing Ecosystem
Offers a characterization of the impact investing ecosystem and the drive towards social change and social impact creation, exploring the global impact investing phenomenon and why investors are increasingly leaning into impact investing and how it can make a difference.
· Evolution in Impact Investing
· Doing well by doing good: how to drive social change and create social impact
Part II. The Impact Investment Market, Delivering Blended Value
Focuses on describing the II market for the delivery of blended value.
· Factors Informing Impact Investing Decisions and Portfolio
· The Development of an Impact-driven Portfolio
· Risk, Returns and Impact: Trade-off or Complements?
· Standards and Certification
· The Enabling Environment: The Role of Public Policy and Regulation
· Best Practices
Part III. Measuring and Reporting Impacts
Offers the latest perspective for measuring, evaluating and reporting impacts. In parallel to the growing trend of the impact investment industry, new practices of assessment, as well as guidelines for evaluating the results of these investments have emerged.
· Measuring and evaluating Impact Investment
· Performance Analysis Against Benchmarks
· Reporting of Impact Investment Projects
Part IV. Experiences From Around The Globe
Offers a perspective of experiences around the globe, focusing on the base of the pyramid, investments with a gender lens and diversity and minorities. It includes case studies/impact stories of successes, inspiring cases, innovations, specific cases for those at the bottom of the pyramid and gender
· Case Studies/Impact Stories
· Impact Investing at the Base of the Pyramid
· Impact Investing with a Gender Lens
· Impact Investing and Diversity
Part V. Where Is Impact Investing Headed?
Concludes by providing an overview of where II is headed, through innovation across instruments, regulation, actors, and how this is translated into future opportunities and on an effect on sustainable development.
· Creating a New Ecosystem of Impact Investing for Blended Value
· Innovating for Impact Investing
· Impact Investment Opportunities
The Audience
This Handbook is for everyone attempting to understand this new megatrend and how it is making a difference in bringing along stronger commitments for inclusive growth and development. In particular, the Handbook will be of interest to the impact investment community (investment professionals, investors, pension fund managers, and more specifically of executives, social entrepreneurs), but also non-profit professionals and practitioners, along with scholars, students from different academic disciplines, such as economics, finance, international development, development finance, entrepreneurship, corporate governance.
Publishing Timeline
We expect the book to be published in 2019.
Guidelines for Contributors
We seek original content and will not consider content published elsewhere.
Proposal Submission
Researchers and practitioners individually or in teams are invited to submit before October 19, 2018, a 500 to 2,000 words proposal explaining the topic and content of the chapter. This can be delivered in the form of an extended abstract. Please include your and your co-authors name, affiliations and email contacts.
Submissions can be sent electronically (in Word) by mail to the editorial team to the following address handbook.impact.investing@gmail.com. Inquiries can be sent to this address and/or to elsa.sarmento@gmail.com
Please forward this email to people you consider have an interest in this topic. Apologies for any cross-posting.
About the Editors
Elsa de Morais Sarmento
Elsa Sarmento is a research member at NOVAFRICA, Nova Business School of Management and Economics (Portugal) and specializes in Impact Investing, private sector development and evaluation of projects and programs. She recently edited the "Emerald Handbook of Public-Private Partnerships in Emerging and Developing Countries". She worked for several organisations, including the European Commission, World Bank and IFC, African Development Bank, Millennium Challenge Corporation, UNDP, TRADECOM, CARICOM, among others. She served in several Director positions at the Research Office of the Portuguese Ministry of Economy, Innovation and Development and lectured in several universities in Europe. She has been a researcher at the Centre for Economic Performance (LSE, UK) and European Parliament. She has a Masters in European Economics from the University of Leicester (UK) and a BSc in Economics (Nova School of Business and Economics).
Christian Kingombe
Christian Kingombe is a Research Associate at Centre for Socio-Economic Development CSEND (Switzerland) and has co-founded the 4IP Group LLC dedicated to Impact Investing & People-First PPP activities in Emerging Markets. He has a long long-standing career working for a number of international organizations, such as African Development Bank, UNCTAD, UNECE, ILO and in academia, namely at the Graduate Institute Geneva, Centre for the Study of African Economies at the University of Oxford and ENSAE-CREST at ParisTech. He also worked at the Overseas Development Institute (ODI), the OECD Development Centre and the Centre for Development Research (today DIIS). He has previously been involved in three International Handbooks (including Routledge); in four published Books (including Palgrave; MacMillan); and in 12 International Organization Flagship Reports. He has also extensive experience in referee work and editorial activities, including being a member of the editorial board of two Peer Reviewed Journals. Finally, he has earned a Ph.D. in Applied Development Economics at the Centre for Development and Poverty Reduction and the Centre for Environmental Policy, at Imperial College in London (UK).
Thibaut Mourgues
Thibaut Mourgues is a development finance and Public Private Partnerships (PPP) expert, with substantial experience in International development. After a career in banking, he became advisor to numerous Governments, public authorities and international institutions on Infrastructure Finance and Public-Private Partnerships. During recent years, he has been working for the African Development Bank in several projects in Tunisia, Ivory Coast, Morocco and Madagascar. He has a Master in Finance from ESSEC Business School (Paris) and a degree from Institut d'Etudes Politiques de Paris (Sciences Po Paris).