The Impact World this Week: 17 July 2025

UK: Giving civil society “a home at the heart of government” is the aim of the UK government’s new Civil Society Covenant, launched today by prime minister Keir Starmer. The covenant aims  to “define a new model of partnership” between government and civil society, including social enterprises, social investors, purpose-driven businesses, volunteers, charities, faith organisations, co-operatives, trade unions and philanthropists.

At its launch at a summit in London, prime minister Kier Starmer said the covenant “is about rebalancing power and responsibility. Not the top-down approach of the state working alone. Not the transactional approach of markets left to their own devices. But a new way forward – where government and civil society work side by side to deliver real change.”

More than 1,200 organisations have contributed to the development of the covenant, since it was announced in October 2024. The covenant is a new cross-sector Joint Civil Society Covenant Council to oversee the implementation of the covenant, made up of senior leaders from civil society and senior representatives from government departments. A Local Covenant Partnerships programme will be launched to support collaboration between civil society, councils and public services in communities that need it most. 

A range of ‘Task and Finish Groups’ will be introduced to focus on specific policy issues. Two initial groups will focus on commissioning and local level partnerships. An online hub for practical guidance and resources related to the covenant will be launched. 

• Read more: UK government announces £500m social outcomes fund to support vulnerable children

Asia Pacific: US$539bn has been committed to advancing gender equality across 17 Asia Pacific countries in 2023-24, according to a new report published by AVPN. Over 98% of the funding came from public sources, an overwhelming dependence that researchers said could risk the achievement of the UN Sustainable Development 5, “Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls”, as public funding is exposed to political decisions from governments and shifting national priorities. The report calls for increasing private sector investment, notably through the use of concessional capital to develop effective models.

A large majority of financing towards SDG 5 came from China, which allocated US$487.45bn towards gender equality in 2023-24 – while the other 16 countries together allocated just US$51.27bn. The report estimates a total of US$1.12tn annually is needed to close the gender gap in the region.

Greece: Impact investments in Greece reached €1.8bn in 2024, according to the first study of the Greek impact investing market, published by the Hellenic Impact Investing Network – the country’s national platform for impact investing and a national partner of GSG Impact. This represents a 10% rise on the previous year – a considerable slowdown from the 57% increase between 2022 and 2023, as the market needs more structured investment vehicles and scalable models to keep growing, according to the researchers.

Public-backed institutions like the European Investment Bank are playing a key role in providing impact capital, while institutional and private investors' participation remains low. The lack of dedicated impact funds is a challenge, as well as a lack of investable ventures that meet international impact and investment-readiness criteria, which limits capital deployment at scale.

• Explore the social economy in Greece in our Global Focus

Global: A new report offers solutions to tackle the challenges preventing blended finance from mobilising private investment at scale. The study, published by the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership, found that better data transparency can help investors’ misconceptions that investing in emerging markets is too risky, and that building the capacity and expertise of local financial institutions will improve success. The research also recommends the use of innovative financial structures such as guarantees or currency hedging to support investor confidence, and the need for standardised structures that would reduce the complexity and cost of developing a blended finance deal. It echoes some of the recommendations made during the UN Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development (FFD4) in Seville earlier this month.

• Read more: Blended finance remains ‘most promising tool’ for financing development, but needs fixing – UN conference

Europe: The 20th year of Impact Europe was marked by an increase in members, successful market mobilisation and input into EU policy discussions, according to the impact investing network’s 2024 annual report, published earlier this month. Fifty-four new members joined the organisation, which made a “modest” loss of €161,933 over the course of the year, which didn’t cause any disruption to its  programmes. Impact Europe’s market building mobilised €927,340 in additional funding for impact funds in emerging markets and the organisation contributed to policy discussions on the EU Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR), advocating for a distinct impact investment category.

Europe: A roadmap towards nature credits was published by the EU Commission last week, promising to deliver a certification framework to facilitate investments in activities that benefit nature. The nature credit market would reward biodiversity restoration and ecosystem services, beyond carbon, generating income for people involved in the protection, restoration and sustainable management of ecosystems. Stakeholders will be invited to submit their views and contributions to the elements set out in the roadmap. The Commission said the collaborative development of the ideas will pave the way for further exploring policy options, including how existing carbon architecture could be leveraged to create a new strand dedicated to nature credits. Mechanisms to support demand generation could be explored, including incentivising uptake through disclosure and procurement rules, tax incentives, sectorial requirements, or other regulatory tools. 

UK: Unlocking the full potential of the impact economy to deliver lasting social and environmental change is the aim of the newly-formed Impact Economy Collective, which launched last week. The collective, hosted by LSE’s Marshall Institute and convened by consultancy AchieveGood, describes itself as “a growing alliance of organisations from philanthropy, impact investing, and purpose-driven business working together to partner with government and advance solutions to our shared social and environmental challenges”. Founding organisations include Better Society Capital, the Impact Investing Institute and Pathway Fund. In a LinkedIn post, the collective said it is already providing analysis and input into the government’s Social Impact Investment Advisory Group.

• Read more: UK government’s Social Impact Investment Advisory Group members revealed

Movers and Shakers

• Amir Rizwan is joining social investor Social Investment Scotland (SIS). Rizwan is the director of London Social Ventures, and previously held positions at Better Society Capital, Comic Relief and Charities Aid Foundation.
• Erinch Sahan will leave his position as business and enterprise lead at the Doughnut Economics Action Lab at the end of August, after four years in the role. He is yet to reveal what his next move will be.
• AVPN has appointed Achal Agarwal as chair of its board. He succeeds Veronica Colondam, who has served as chair since 2021. Agarwal has had a number of senior roles in large corporations including Kimberly-Clark and PespiCo, and serves on a number of company and nonprofit boards.

In case you missed it

Global: £213.3m is the post-tax profit made in 2024 by British International Investment, the UK’s development finance institution and impact investor, in comparison to a £44m loss in 2023. British International Investment’s annual review, published earlier this month, also detailed how it committed £1.bn to African companies in 2024 to create jobs, reduce aid dependency and combat the climate emergency, nearly 40% more than its 2023 total of £725m. In total, British International Investment invested £708m in climate finance in 2024. The company’s climate finance assets now make up over 26% of its entire portfolio, up from just over 15% in 2020.

UK: The British Business Bank has announced a £500m investment package for diverse and under-represented fund managers, aiming to reduce the “significant gap in venture capital investment for underrepresented founders and investors due to industry biases, reliance on closed networks, and limited diversity among investors”. The £400m Investor Pathways Capital initiative will channel the investment through microfunds, supporting smaller investments in promising individuals and through the bank’s Enterprise Capital Funds programme, which backs venture capital funds investing in small businesses. In addition, the bank committed to invest a total of £100m in women-led funds.

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