Comments

As one of those involved in negotiating Pacer Plus I agree with your remarks. There is nothing to be scared of in Pacer Plus, it is just a waste of time and effort. it would have been much better to negotiate an Economic Development Agreement with a Labour Mobility section.

Hello Ann, this reads very well and captures the crucial ideas of improving well-being through remittances that provide for the family and raise their status. And the through knowledge, skills and improved capacity to improve or start businesses. It would be interesting to see comparison to other countries that send migrants to less industrialized countries and to the middle east, although outcomes might generally be similar. As this strategy of migration is so common in so many countries, and it is policy to encourage it is important have analyses like this to improve our understanding. But too many people around the world are suffering from exploitation, family dislocation, etc. as well, so there are two sides to the story.

Interesting view. I kind of agree that when talking about project impact, it's better we give concrete evidence based data to support points of discussion. Manup Kulubob has a point while making reference to Digicel Foundation as the fabricated vehicle to drive a false campaign of its commitment to development in PNG. In the same token I'd like to know how much profit Digicel has so far made since its entry into PNG market versus the expenses incurred through its Foundation. I kind of agree when Mark Zukerberg, Facebook founder view on corporate social responsibility since he retains only 1% of the profit generated rather than listen to what Digicel try to tell me about #Corporate_Philanthropy

Hi Ann, thank you for the beautifully written, logical and objective article on Timorese living overseas. The more others learn about the lives that Timorese live in order to survive, help their families and make a better life for themselves, the better

Thank you, Priyanka. Interesting and thoughtful piece. However, rather than lamenting the lack of investors who will accept sub-market returns, let's work on more creative deal structuring. If we can create investment opportunities that meet market requirements, then impact investing can tap into trillions of dollars of investment capital. One promising approach is blended finance, where a philanthropic or government investor takes a sub-market piece to attract large amounts of commercial capital alongside. But (at the risk of talking my own book) I think the real need is more creative financial intermediaries. We can't change the financial markets, so let's change our approch to them, tweaking deals to meet the markets' needs and thereby bringing huge amounts of capital into the impact space.

While it is a n undeniable fact that Digicel is monopolizing the telecommunication section of PNG it is at the same time very disappointing to experience the expensive costs of its services. The foundation offers less than a percentage of the total revenue it racks in annually. I find the foundation somewhat as a advertising or more or less fabricated vehicle to drive a false campaign of its commitment to help in developing PNG. The community projects are blind projects that are carried out with the sole purpose of promoting a corporate giant. The projects are blind because they are proposed and implemented base on assumptions always. The project cannot be termed as impact as there currently is no statistics in PNG that will support any project. The Education department, National Department of Health and the National Statistics Office lack in sufficient updated information that will ensure that projects carried out are necessary and will address the improvement in each sector in the many problems faced in each sector. PNG is a complex country with multi-cultural societies and languages that result in various problems faced in each sector. Without proper statistics nationally I question how Digicel foundation claims to address the issue of development when there is no direction of where to start at the right place and time. To me all these projects lack current data to imply that there is need for such projects. There is no proper evaluation of the running and outcome of these projects. It only comes to question if private public partnership in PNG for development are real or just fabricated acts of assistance that cement companies large profit making agenda in our country.

Very good your blog, an article of value, no doubt an excellent school.

Good to see the Pacific RISE program moving forward and thank-you Priyanka for update on progress of impact investing. Running the EU Coordination Unit in Lautoka, Fiji where we are monitoring a programme of projects to support sugar sector transformation - we get a good perespective on development needs, what's working and what's not working. Impact Investing is another 'tool' we can work with - applicable in some situations but not all. It was not part of the sugar programme but I have no doubt it can play a role going forward. One of the contributions that impact investing can make is the application of greater financial analysis and business model rigour to a given development investment. It encourages us all to 'do the sums' and do more than just lip service to making an intervention sustainable. However, this approach requires strengthened project design, financial analysis and the ability to present a potential investment to both development and non-development practitioners - not an easy task. So very much agree on supporting efforts to upskill in area of project design to boost weak impact investment pipeline. Funding intermediaries to undertake market scoping and opportunity identification is also of value - this is a slow and expensive business for unfunded intermediaries especially in markets where investment opportunities may be relatively limited and deal size modest e.g. Pacific island states.

Hi Priyanka, thanks very much for your great post on impact investment. World Vision is an excellent example of an impact first investor. I work with Pacific RISE, a newly launched Australian Government initiative to create an impact investment market in the Pacific Islands. The ability to use new forms of finance to tackle social challenges is a key reason why donor agencies are piloting this type of program. Pacific RISE has partnered with a number of impact investors to develop their relationships in the Pacific and to fund investment readiness activities with Pacific social enterprises. For example, the Australian Government supported The Difference Incubator (TDi) to facilitate an investment in Tanna Coffee – a Vanuatu based coffee company helping farmers rehabilitate coffee crops damaged in Cyclone Pam. The pipeline of investible projects is a key challenge for investors in the Pacific especially those really looking at more complex activities around social change. These projects need to engage those working on the ground, those in business and those in finance but there is often limited funding available to support finance intermediaries’ work and a lack of knowledge made available to civil society on the role that finance could play. This week we are holding a three day workshop in Suva with 22 amazing women from Pacific gender and women’s rights organisations to better understand the social issues they face, the data they have and where impact investment could play a role. Pacific RISE can then better design our funding rounds to entice finance into this space and bring investors into the partnership. In particular, our workshop will focus on how we could use finance to address gender-based violence in the Pacific. It’s a global challenge and we have found so many different investors, foundations, NGOs and philanthropy willing to work with us to make a difference. We will be updating the Pacific RISE website on our outcomes and will be reporting through our regular blog series on Impact Alpha.

Such a well thought out, integrated approach from two respected and impactful organisations - in two countries with the most vulnerable women and girls in the Asia-Pacific region. Will be really interested to read further as the project implementation progresses, to hear about the on-the-ground challenges. So please to read of Australia's ongoing and critical commitment to women and girls.

Great to hear more about the research being funded under Pacific Women Shaping Pacific Development, Tracey - once the work is completed, please do get in touch if there is interest in sharing the findings on the Devpolicy Blog!

Great that these two DFAT funded programs are highlighted in this blog. The mentioned research in Fiji, Solomon Islands and PNG is funded through Pacific Women Shaping Pacific Development and is exploring how women's and girls' acess to menstrual hygiene impacts on their participation in education and income generation. The research findings will be widely distributed.