The Impact World this Week: 9 April 2026

Global: Skoll Social Innovation award winners announced ahead of Oxford’s Skoll World Forum

Three social entrepreneurs will receive the $2m Skoll Award for Social Innovation this year. The leaders of Pakistan’s ChildLife Foundation, SmartStart in South Africa and Indus Action in India will be presented with their awards on 23 April during the 23rd annual Skoll World Forum, held in Oxford, England. “Even in the face of profound shocks to the social impact space, these organisations are not simply maintaining their impact, they are increasing it exponentially,” said Marla Blow, CEO and president of the Skoll Foundation. “We hope their stories will inspire other social entrepreneurs to continue their pursuit of transformational change.”

(Header photo: ChildLife Foundation is strengthening Pakistan's struggling paediatric emergency care system and has achieved a tenfold reduction in child mortality in the emergency rooms that it manages.)

Pioneers Post will be reporting from this year’s Skoll World Forum – stay tuned for updates. 

Japan: Impact investment growth slows, but market ‘matures’

Impact assets under management in Japan exceeded JPY18.5tn (US$117.35bn) at the end of March 2025. The market stood at JPY17.3tn in 2024, and JPY11.5tn in 2023. The Japan Social Innovation and Investment Foundation last week published its Current State and Challenges of Impact Investing in Japan 2025 Survey which highlighted that the main driver of market growth was expansion of investments by existing organisations rather than new market entrants. The figures represent the total assets under management of 47 organisations that meet the country’s requirements for impact investing. The researchers pointed out that although growth had slowed compared with the previous year, the market had reached “a new stage of maturity”. 

UK: Chance to win support from Boston Consulting Group

Boston Consulting Group’s UK Social Enterprise Award is now open for entries until 11 May. The award, now in its second year, is run by the consultancy firm in partnership with the Cambridge Centre for Social Innovation, Impact Hub and Ashoka. The award is open to organisations that have been operating for at least two years in the fields of health, education or social mobility, with a turnover of at least £500,000. The winner will receive an eight-week “strategy engagement” with a team from Boston Consulting Group to help scale its impact.

Global: How financial reporting can fix the world – dive into Jeremy Nicholls’ new book

Pioneers Post columnist and global expert on impact management, Jeremy Nicholls’ new book is out now. The Accounting Paradox: How financial accounting is damaging the world (but can help repair it) highlights how companies are reporting profits while ignoring the environmental and social costs their activities impose on others, and argues that this is not just an ethical problem, but an accounting one.

• By Jeremy Nicholls: Do you really know a responsible business when you see one? 

Australia: New opportunities to transform rural areas through community ownership

“Community ownership is the most catalytic thing a community can do to build the know-how and confidence to own and build the foundations of their economy,” writes Matt Pfahlert on LinkedIn, co-founder of the Australian Centre for Rural Entrepreneurship (ACRE) announcing a new fund to provide rural communities with patient, concessional loan capital with up to 12-year terms. The fund is part of ACRE’s new “Community Owned Australia” initiative which will provide a support service and feasibility grants programme to help rural communities own, operate and sustain assets like business, buildings or valued local services, “turning them into engines for social, cultural, economic and environmental renewal”. The initiative has seed investment from the Paul Ramsay Foundation, AMP Foundation and the Bendigo Bank Community Enterprise Foundation. Plunkett UK and the Development Trusts Association Scotland are also offering expertise.