AVPN Global Conference 2022: Spotlighting the best ideas in Asia for catalysing capital towards impact

Next week more than 1,000 philanthropists, investors and policymakers will gather in Bali, Indonesia for the AVPN Global Conference 2022. As Indonesia is the host of the G20 Summit of global leaders in November, participants at this year’s AVPN event are keen to grasp the opportunity to bring Asian voices to the global stage with their solutions to the world’s most urgent problems.

The focus of the AVPN Global Conference, run by the largest network of social investors in Asia, is to ultimately increase the flow of capital towards closing the financing gap for achieving the sustainable development goals in Asia. The event will be opened by Joko Widodo, the president of the Republic of Indonesia, and it is an official side event of the G20 Summit.

The AVPN Global Conference will bring together some of the best minds in climate, health, education, gender and economic opportunities to help ensure that capital deployed across the region is fully catalysed for maximum impact

“We are honoured to bring together so many high-profile leaders in philanthropy and social investment,” said AVPN CEO, Naina Batra. 

“Asian nations have young and highly adaptive populations and have shown they can grow quickly, but the pandemic has slowed progress in Asia more than any other region in the world. The AVPN Global Conference will bring together some of the best minds in climate, health, education, gender and economic opportunities, especially for youth, to help ensure that capital deployed across the region is fully catalysed for maximum impact.”

The programme features speakers including Jacqueline Novogratz, CEO and founder of Acumen; Boon Heong Ng, deputy CEO of the Temasek Trust and one of the founding members of the Asian Impact Leaders Network, and Robert Rosen, director of philanthropic partnerships at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. 

There will also be several key announcements, opportunities and launches during the event which takes place from 21-24 June at the Bali International Convention Centre. 

1. Amplifying key voices through the Asian Impact Leaders Network 

Launching at the event is the Asian Impact Leaders Network. Co-created by AVPN and The Rockefeller Foundation, it aims to amplify the voices of some of the most impressive problem-solvers from the Asia-Pacific. The “solutions-focused and ambitious” group will bring together Asian leaders to further cross-border and cross-sector collaboration to work towards their shared agenda of achieving equitable growth and development for the region.

• Read more in our special feature: G20 and beyond: the rise of the Asian Impact Leaders 

2. Empowering Asian young people through the Youth Opportunities Platform

More than 60% of the world’s young people live in Asia, but there aren’t enough opportunities or scalable solutions to support their growth and maximise their potential, believes AVPN. The Youth Opportunities Platform – developed by AVPN and Citi Foundation –  aims to unlock and aggregate capital in the public, private and social sectors and match it to opportunities and initiatives for young people in the region. 

Education, personal empowerment and doing good are the top three priorities for young people according to an AVPN study this year of young people in five South East Asian countries. 

Find out more via youth@avpn.asia. 

3. Key face-to-face meetings for the Asia Gender Network

The World Economic Forum reports that it will take 163 years to reach gender equality globally and the pandemic has set the movement back for the 2bn-plus women in Asia. In 2021, AVPN launched the Asia Gender Network to bring together thought leaders and philanthropists with a commitment to bridge the gender gap in Asia by mobilising capital to improve outcomes for women and girls in the region. 

Members of the Asia Gender Network will convene in person for the first time at this year’s conference. Workshops, facilitated by experts from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Stanford Global Center for Gender Equality and the Singapore Parliament, aim to develop industry-shifting principles for gender lens philanthropy. The network members will also share perspectives into the challenges and opportunities faced by philanthropists in Asia as they work to close the gender gap as well as explore how members of the wider impact ecosystem can collaborate to improve outcomes for women and girls.

4. An opportunity for funders to back three new philanthropic funds

AVPN’s philanthropic pooled funds have broken new ground in Asia. “We tell our members, if you really want to create change, if you want to really help grow the sector, if you’re using philanthropic capital, use it to let the recipients be brave,” said AVPN CEO Naina Subberwal Batra last year as the network launched its first pooled fund which offered unrestricted operational grants (the first of its kind in south east Asia) focused on healthcare.

• Read our Pioneers Interview with Naina Subberwal Batra: Philanthropists, let your grantees be brave

AVPN’s eight philanthropic funds provide a channel for funders to collaborate on Asia’s key challenges by providing unrestricted philanthropy to impact organisations. To date, the funds have raised more than US$11m to support work across themes including health, gender and climate.

At the event, AVPN will launch three new funds to channel more philanthropic capital towards addressing Asia’s most pressing issues such as sustainability, gender inequality and supporting healthcare systems. Additionally, AVPN is inviting new partners to join its STEM Fund to boost opportunities for women and girls from low income families and disadvantaged groups in STEM education and training.

Find out more via capital@avpn.asia. 

5. Launch of 10 Social Investment Principles for Asia

AVPN has collaborated with Economist Impact, part of the Economist magazine group, to create a new report which will be launched at the event. The aim is to explore how social investors across Asia can be best supported to mobilise their capital effectively to address the Sustainable Development Goals. 

The report will highlight ten social investment principles for Asia to provide a roadmap for investors across the lifecycle of projects.

6. Developing the G20 Principles for Blended Finance 

Blended finance – using catalytic capital from public or philanthropic sources to increase private sector investment – has huge promise as an effective tool to achieve sustainable development, according to AVPN. But there needs to be more progress in using it, especially in developing countries. AVPN is a partner in the G20 Development Working Group and is supporting Indonesia’s Ministry of National Development Planning (Bappenas) to develop a set of blended finance principles with the aim of them being formally adopted by the G20. 

The AVPN Global Conference is a key event for progress in these discussions to move forward.

• Read more about the push to develop blended finance across Asia-Pacific in our feature: From billions to trillions: finding the funding to address the world’s biggest challenges 

7. Celebrating collaboration with the Constellations Awards

The AVPN Constellations Awards, to be announced during the event on 21 June, celebrate the ingenuity and effectiveness of the network’s members and the remarkable ways in which social investors across Asia collaborate to address the sustainable development goals. 

The categories include climate action, gender, healthcare and economic opportunities – plus a people’s choice award for AVPN members to vote for their favourite among the finalists. 

8. An opportunity to push forward the clean energy transition

The Just Energy Transition is one of the priorities for the Indonesian government’s presidency of this year’s G20, likewise this important theme runs through the AVPN Global Conference. For example, one session focuses on the nascent, yet growing, climate philanthropy movement in Asia and another looks at the impact of climate change on the most vulnerable communities. Philanthropists, policymakers and changemakers will have many opportunities to develop new collaborations, explore different approaches and increase their knowledge in this field.     

9. Bali: an event location like no other

AVPN is keen to emphasise that the event location, Bali in Indonesia, will be one of the major highlights for delegates. The world’s largest archipelago has strong creative roots and its creative and social enterprises have been celebrated for their significant contribution to inclusive economic development across the country. Last year was the UN International Year of Creative Economy for Sustainable Development, with Indonesia as the theme’s lead sponsor, and research published by AVPN, the British Council, the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific during 2021 revealed that with more than 8m creative businesses in the country, the sector makes a real and substantial contribution to the national economy. 

• Read more about social and creative economy in Indonesia: Joining the dots in the Indonesian creative and social enterprise ecosystem 

A key conference partner is Kemenparekraf, Indonesia’s Ministry of Tourism and the Creative Economy, and HE Sandiago Uno, the minister of tourism and creative economy, will address the conference on Tuesday 21 June.

Pioneers Post will be reporting from the AVPN Global Conference next week. Check back soon for updates.

Thanks for reading Pioneers Post. As an entrepreneur or investor yourself, you'll know that producing quality work doesn't come free. We rely on our subscribers to sustain our journalism – so if you think it's worth having an independent, specialist media platform that covers social enterprise stories, please consider subscribing. You'll also be buying social: Pioneers Post is a social enterprise itself, reinvesting all our profits into helping you do good business, better.