The fourth edition of the Impact Finance Barometer was launched at the Convergences World Forum on September 17, 2024.
Since 2023, the impact investment market has reached one trillion dollars. While this figure marks an important milestone in the evolution of impact finance worldwide, according to Amit Bouri, President and CEO of GIIN, who spoke to Financial Time at the time, there is still a long way to go:
“The scale of global challenges is what defines the scale of ambition of impact investing.”
It’s true that, if we put this figure into perspective, these trillion dollars represent only around 1% of total assets under management worldwide. And yet, in a GIIN study to be published in September 2024, 94% of impact investors surveyed claim to have met or exceeded their financial and impact objectives, testifying to the sector’s solidity. Could skepticism on the part of markets and governments be the last hurdles to be overcome to democratize this practice?
For there is much at stake. While environmental impact finance has gradually carved out a place for itself on the financial landscape, the growing gap in global inequality reminds us of the urgent need to redouble our efforts to ensure that social impact finance is also at the heart of the concerns of public policy and traditional financial markets.
Social impact finance is a lever for promoting a fair and inclusive transition for all. The capital raised generates measurable benefits for society, which means that investments can be channeled towards projects that seek to reduce inequalities and support vulnerable populations. But in addition to its aim of combating injustice, it must be easily accessible to all, ensuring that resources reach territories and communities in need.
For this ambition to be realized, the cooperation and collaboration of all financial players is required. This implies, among other things, the implementation of common measurement and transparency mechanisms, capable of assessing and certifying the real impact of investments. In this respect, the reading grid represented by the SDGs remains a powerful tool on which to draw.
Since 2021, the Impact Finance Barometer has presented key figures and global trends in financial inclusion and impact investing, a sector that has enjoyed strong, sustained momentum since its emergence in the early 2000s. Indeed, for the first time since GIIN began estimating the size of the global impact investment market, it has passed the symbolic $1,000 billion mark, reaching $1,164 billion by 2022. What motivates the sector today? How can socio-political risks be factored into financial inclusion? Why is it so difficult to finance certain sectors, such as the SSE? How can we ensure that social performance measurement is at the heart of all financing activities? By inviting the structures of our ecosystem to share their expertise on impact issues, the Barometer offers a panoramic vision of the different forms that impact finance can take, highlights its real operating capacities on a global scale through concrete examples, and highlights responses to the issues of inclusion and financing social and environmental transitions.
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They contributed to the Impact Finance Barometer: Accélérateur ESS HEC & Région Île-de-France, Aqua for All, Article 1, Cerise+SPTF, e-MFP, FAIR, Fondation Grameen Crédit Agricole, Institut de la Finance Durable, La Nef, MFR – ATLAS, Ring Capital, Tameo Impact Fund Solutions