The Stephen Zuellig Graduate School of Development Management (ZSDM) and the Social Impact Bond Lab held a forum entitled “Dev@Work: Developing Social Impact Bonds for Employment” at the Asian Institute of Management on 08 June 2018.
The Dev@Work series contributes to the UN Sustainable Development Goals by hosting discussions on emerging and current development issues locally and internationally.
ZSDM is the academic institution partner of the Social Impact Bond Lab (SIB Lab), a product of the Management Research Report of a former Master in Development Management (MDM) student. Civika Asian Development Academy is the host organization behind the Lab.
Social impact bonds are an innovative development financing tool, which provide funding to social interventions using private capital, ensuring that the desired outcomes of the interventions are achieved.
SIBs originated in the United Kingdom in 2010 and are currently used in both developed and developing countries. Colombia was the first developing country to launch social impact bonds with the government as the outcome payer. India and Peru have also launched similar bonds with non-government organizations as outcome payers. In the Philippines, barriers to adoption exist because SIBs are a new financing concept.
ZSDM’s SIB Lab is the first social lab in the Philippines and Asean region to introduce social impact bonds. It envisions itself as the research and training center for social impact bonds and outcome-based projects in the Philippines and Asia.
In February, SIB Lab hosted a forum on the applicability of social impact bonds in the Philippine education sector. The most recent forum in June centered around the use of SIBs in employment.
Colombia’s SIB model was presented as a use case for SIBs to address unemployment. Toward the end of the forum, resource speakers provided insights on the SIB model and how can it be adopted in the Philippines.
Guests from the Department of Labor and Employment discussed employment trends and challenges in the Philippines and Asia, as well as government efforts to address key issues. Social enterprise Happy Helpers also presented an initiative to provide employment to mothers in the community.
Next, SIB Lab will conduct an onboarding session to launch and start the SIB Lab Fellowship Program 2018 to produce experts on social impact bonds.