Edited by Torino Social Impact

Policy & Practice

The international debate and best practices from around the world

18 November 2019

The Global Steering Group for Impact Investment

What are the building blocks for the new Impact Economy? What opportunities does it offer businesses, investors, governments and consumers? These questions are the core of the activities of the Global Steering Group, one of the leading organizations in the impact economy debate, with which Torino Social Impact actively collaborates.

The Global Steering Group for Impact Investment (GSG) is an independent global steering group bringing together leaders from the worlds of finance, business, and philanthropy and is aimed at catalyzing impact investment and entrepreneurship to benefit people and planet.

Highlighting that with impact investment currently representing 1% of capital allocated globally, just a small increase could unlock billions more for social purposes, the GSG focuses on the scaling of those activities that have been supported by impact ventures, delivering social and environmental outcomes alongside financial returns.

Within the works of the GSG, hundreds of impact leaders, investors and entrepreneurs discuss how impact business models can drive increasing profits and how the leading businesses of the future will profitably pursue a double bottom-line. The debate focus also on shaping a global policies which foster the spreading of impact investing, to bring together private and public capital with social entrepreneurship and not-for-profit organizations to drive huge social change to benefit the people and the planet. These themes and the setting of recommendations to policy makers are the center of the working groups and meetings of the GSG, such as the annual Impact Summit, whose 2019 edition has been organized in Buenos Aires on 18-19 November 2019.

The world faces increasing inequality and the spread of social issues worldwide, from a lack of access to basic education and healthcare to climate change and the refugee crisis. These challenges can be addressed by unleashing the twin powers of impact capital and social entrepreneurship, which means we can tackle issues at scale. GSG promotes the idea that there is no longer a trade-off between “doing good” and “doing well” and believes that at the core of impact investing is the setting of measurable impact objectives and the management of financial performance. There is a paradigm shift occurring across the world towards a future where a positive and measurable combination of risk, return and impact drives investments and the allocation of capital.

The GSG was established in August 2015 as the successor to and incorporating the work of the Social Impact Investment Taskforce established under the UK´s presidency of the G8. The GSG currently has 23 countries plus the EU as members. Chaired by Sir Ronald Cohen, the GSG brings together leaders from the worlds of finance, business, and philanthropy. Italy is one of the GSG members.

To get more information about GSG: https://gsgii.org/