Title of the session: Multi-sector collaborations- Partnering with multi-lateral funders

Summary of the content of the session:

General acknowledgement that the challenges faced are massive and unless we collaborate we
cannot affect change on a grand scale. How to engage multi-sectoral donors with government and
corporations to assist?
Moderator: Alison Eskesen (Director, Research and Programs, Shujog)
Speakers:
Ilaria Ida, Global Social Mission Manager, Ben and Jerrys
When B&J set up co in 1978 there were not many companies set up to be agents of change. They
started with ice-cream because it was the cheapest way to start up a food business. The business
was set up to make a change in society as well as make money. Started purchasing ingredients from
like-minded suppliers. They used their purchasing power to make a change. The brownies come
from a bakery in Yonkers, NY who recruit ex inmates who otherwise find it difficult to get into work.
This approach has paid off for B&J because the impact has extended further than just a normal
business.
B&J also teamed up with university partners to come up with sustainable dairy program. Now rolled
out to all their markets globally. They also established a relationship with Fairtrade international. All
key commodities for B&J are Fairtrade. There is linked prosperity to raise the bar higher for the
product. B&J also realised that they could have a big impact if they used their voice and network to
increase reach. So everything needs to have social, economic and product focus. For each market
they partner with relevant companies to fulfil this.
David Galipeau, Asia-Pacific Innovation Team Leader Director, UN Social Enterprise Facility
The UN has created a social impact and investment fund. Looking at traditional partnerships and
looking 10 or 20 years ahead at what will impact development. The private sector is taking a larger
role, sometimes because of CSR and sometimes for PR purposes but its all moving in the right
direction. Millenials will be looking to invest in the future. Need to look at multi-lateral relationships,
at local level and high level this is being done. Meeting in the middle is where change is going to
happen.
The UN is looking at the partnership landscape and realising that the UN needs to change, not the
rest of the world. They are capitalising their national funds and investing in social enterprises and
investing for scale, second stage funds. Looking for startups who have high potential to scale.
Looking for regional and global scale. They have development expertise. They partner from the other
side with the private sector. Social enterprise can take advantage of every tool available to multi
national businesses. So business development can come into the social space. This is the UN idea of
how multi lateral relationships should be.
Arnaud Gillin, Partner & Co-Founder Innpact
Are the UN worried about crowding out the private sector? The UN does not have a whole bunch of
MBAs. They dont understand market dynamics so they need to partner with people who do.

Corporations are measured very accurately and differently. UN wants to measure social impact at
that kind of level.
Andrea Pastorelli, Policy Specialist Poverty, Equity and Governance, UNDP China
We all need to learn how to work together. Sustainable Development Goals will create the UN
agenda for the next 20 years. Philanthropic world should be involved in these conversations to
influence the outcomes. Previous goals were decided by government and UN and other big
organisations. They shaped the dialogue around specific issues. Now there are more organisations
like Gates and other philanthropic organisations that need to be involved in the conversation. How
do we achieve access to government? The UN has access to government and if you learn through UN
how to talk to government then this could be good collaboration. Need to look at systemic change
that can be affected. We all want the government to recognise an issue is important and then
implement policy changes.
Arnaud Gillin: Designing the right financial instruments to help investment. In the Balkan region
there were a lot of micro finance and other government and institutional tools. A fund was chosen
as the best structure to create the right platform to support micro finance in SE Europe. Fund is
flexible allowing different kinds of investors to contribute. Donors, World Bank and private sector
contribute to fund. Donors, governments are there to support micro finance in the long term and
provide risk protection and policy dialogue, make sure mission doesnt drift.
Then there are DFIs. They raise money in the market and expertise to deal with banks etc. In 10
years it grew from $100m to $1b. The same principle is being applied to a lot of strategies. With
these kind of investors investment could happen within 1.5 months. $3b now at Innpact Finance.
This is a way to achieve investment between public and private investors. They are merely a conduit.
All actors in the area know that there is this fund they can use as a hub of access to policy etc.
Ilaria Ida: B&J have a 5 year social strategy at global level that is looked at through a local lens. This
influences partnerships. Always find local partner for the expertise. Corporates can bring in not just
money. They have knowledge capital. Marketing expertise. Partnerships are risky. When you look for
partner need to know exactly what to look for. Tri-sector partnership and campaign launched in
Singapore. Ilaria Ida networked with locals and discovered that social cohesion and integration was a
big issue and because of the SG50 year campaign this was even more relevant. A trisector campaign
was launched as a pilot to promote social integration across expat and local communities.
Experiential trails designed to help develop empathy across cultures. B&J couldnt do this
themselves so they looked at partners and worked with the thought collective and the National
Integration Council. All trails have run at full capacity and it has been a great success. The marketing
skills from B&J have helped this but it has only been possible because of the collaboration. The
thought collective video at http://www.trails.thethoughtcollective.com.sg
Andrea Pastorelli: The UN has had partnerships with corporate funding and foundation funding
along side the UN. Over two years they managed to achieve a reform at government level so that
charity organisations and service organisations can register in China more easily. Now looking at
working with philanthropists and the UN is writing a report with Ministry of Civil Affairs and they are
writing policy for what will hopefully regulate the sector and create a genuine change in the
landscape.

UNCP partnered with the anti-smoking lobby and created an organisation along with Bloomberg and
others and realised that no one had researched the economic costs of smoking and as a result the
government didnt understand the costs associated with smoking. Research was commissioned to
provide data for the different ministries in China to show that although government makes money
from tax they are also losing in terms of health costs and will continue to lose if they dont do more.
The first draft of an anti-smoking law was established. Great first draft and hoping to keep as much
as possible. This was all done with $80k but brought together the right people to the table to create
systemic change.
David Galipeau: Look at the history of philanthropy. US rich families, EU post war. In Asia things will
be different. Funders and AVPN can really have an influence on how philanthropy in APAC can be
defined in the new world, in the internet of things world and the new finance markets etc. There is
a huge opportunity for the funders to be involved. The Asian experience has just started and there is
a lot of upside. The real onus is on AVPN and other lobbying (for use of a better word) groups.
Arnaud Gillin: VP and NFP teaming with private investment sector. e.g. Oxfam teamed with
Symbiotics, a micro finance specialist and together they crated small Innpact investing fund.
Symbiotics brought investment knowledge and Oxfam brought the development goals and eligibility
criteria to assess the impact.
Shell teamed up an SME finance company to provide debt of $200k to $500k to SME but also provide
business support and capacity building. VP can also play an important role to build ecosystem of the
Innpact finance model. There is sufficient funding. Billions of investment waiting to be invested into
projects.
As an example two investment banks in Germany raised US$150m because the structure matched
and worked. The next question is about the pipeline of investment ready enterprises. Not because
they dont exist but because there are no professional intermediaries on the field in the country to
grow them and make them investment ready to put them on the investment screen of all the right
people.
**The missing block is the person to be on the ground to identify and do the capacity building. Play
the role of the leverage factor to attract the investment.
Alison Eskesen: There are not enough intermediaries to make investment accessible. Do we think
its the role of donors and multi laterals to create the ecosystem or is corporations to provide
purchase orders as collateral for lending or should we say VP your comparative advantage is playing
at this small level because if you seed that you will get to the higher level?
David Galipeau: From a UN perspective and donor perspective youre looking for multipliers and
scale. Never invest in one off. Corporations have a process. Multi laterals have content. The
multipliers are the math. The catalytic points of investment. More than just growing the market for
your product or service. Donors should be demanding enough to look for multiplier effect.
Andrea Pastorelli: It is everybodys responsibility to invest in broader civil society. Sometimes its
also about looking at the long term and you need to invest in something that might not give you a
big return right now. Andrea Pastorelli says that he doesnt see the money that AG talks about.

There should be more giving of funding that is longer term so they can be who they are and deliver
but it may take 3 or 4 years so people need to be happy with risk and do things because theyre the
right thing to do. One way to do that is to establish programs that suit the country in question. AVPN
and Singapore can be good for that because we are centre of Asia and can look to Asian countries
and talk within Asia about the right solutions for the right places.
Ilaria Ida: There is competition to find social entrepreneurs. The ecosystem for social
entrepreneurship is very different in Singapore to other countries. B&J changed the format to cater
for cultural differences in the local ecosystem. B&J will work with a university who is already doing
this kind of program and they will bring their marketing, PR etc to the table. A word of caution is that
philanthropists are in a lucky position and therefore have flexibility to fund risky investments or nonsexy areas and corporate does not have this luxury.
Alison Eskesen: What does it take for a multi lateral organisation to expand a program?
David Galipeau: As an example, in the Maldives there is a very large youth unemployment problem.
They wanted to set up a social grant to address their youth unemployment. They looked at creating
an entrepreneur initiative but the social component wasnt there and there wasnt even an
entrepreneurial skill base in the Maldives to start with. So they had to start with entrepreneurial skill
development. Now theyre setting up an ecosystem and the training for continuity.
Entrepreneurship comes before social entrepreneurship. Sometimes you may need to kickstart
before getting into the real social impact that comes later.
Arnaud Gillin: Now in Asia there are more actors like AVPN to help build professional expertise and
base for the social enterprises. The DFI is interested if the product is interesting and run by
professionals. But earlier on, for social enterprises and smaller organisations there is more a role for
VPs than for DFIs.
Questions and Answers:
Question 1: The Chinese middle class is forecast to grow hugely by 2050. This could generate $250
billion per year in spending. How can this sector be engaged to invest in social entrepreneurship or
building of civil society?
David Galipeau:
This is an institutional question. Once social investment can get to a retail level thats where you get
participation by those who buy and sell shares. IIX is doing a great job to develop a social stock
exchange. Now it is philanthropists, etc and this area will grow.
Arnaud Gillin:
From a technology perspective the regulators of funds want to protect investors. Currently the social
markets are illiquid and can be volatile so they wont invest. Funds are probably not the right
vehicles. Maybe more crowd funding?

Question 2: What is the next step for Venture Philanthropy and what is going to happen?
Andrea Pastorelli:
UN and VP need to work more closely together. VPs need to engage with the UN more, new agendas
agreed this year and climate change agenda to be defined. People at the AVPN conference can
support and fund advocacy to make positive change in those discussions. In the country level,
wherever you work, reach out to international institutions. How to use them to achieve your goal?
David Galipeau:
Dont wait for opportunities. There is an opportunity now to engage and create the landscape at a
much deeper level. Huge for us in Asia compared to EU and the US. People here should go and help
design how the landscape will look for VP.
Ilaria Ida:
There is an opportunity and flexibility that VP has that corporates dont have so use this to your
advantage and then corporates will come in when risk is minimised.
Arnaud Gillin:
Create a strategy and meet with multi laterals after with your cooked project. Sometimes they are
a nightmare to work with but they can provide the skill that you may need.
Alison Eskesen:
This is an opportunity for everyone here to help lead the change in Asia and to create new ways in
which to address global and regional problems.