Welcome to Episode 64 of Good Will Hunters, our Third Impact Investment Masterclass with Rosemary Addis, and the fourth time we’ve had Rosemary on the show.

Rosemary is one of the world’s preeminent impact pioneers. She has helped to shape the system to deliver innovation and investment that benefits people and the planet. Her global portfolio includes Trustee of the Global Steering Group for Impact Investment, Senior Advisor to United Nations Development Programme’s SDG Impact and she has been an expert reviewer for impact initiatives of the OECD and World Economic Forum.

Rosemary’s 30+ years track record spans sectors, disciplines and geographies from a global legal career with Allens-Linklaters and Kirkland & Ellis NY, where she ranked among the world’s leading lawyers, to the first Social Innovation Strategist for the Australian Government and member of the Social Impact Investment Taskforce established under the UK Presidency of the G8 where she was invited to represent Australia as the only participating country from outside the G7 and EU. She was founding Chair of the Australian Advisory Board on Impact Investing, for which she remains an Ambassador, and is founding Chair of Impact Capital Australia and Impact Investing Australia, Impact Investing Asia Pacific Market Builder of the Year (2018).

We cover a lot of ground in this episode. We start with the state of the nation here in Australia, in particular the bushfire crisis that has faced our country this Summer. We talk about what the crisis means for leadership and for investment and the way we think about funding social change. We discuss the Social Impact Investing Taskforce and the opportunity we have to shape a better enabling environment for impact investment.

We then discuss the review of our policy that is underway, including innovative financing opportunities and measuring progress against the SDGs. This includes discussion of the Pacific Infrastructure Financing Facility and one of my favourite programs, Investing in Women. Lastly we discuss what’s happening globally, including the launch fo the Impact Investment Institute in the UK and the Davos Manifesto 2020. Rosemary and I chat regularly both in these episodes and outside of them about why impact investment is so important for our aid sector.

As Rosemary and I acknowledge in this episode, we’re in an environment in Australia where our government funded development spending is very unlikely to increase in the short-term, however we are having a refresh of our aid policy where we can all contribute to the discussion on what a great aid program looks like. Impact investment presents an opportunity to sustainably fund the sector for greater impact. All organisations that I chat to are actively considering impact investment, so I hope these episodes are, and continue to be, an opportunity to learn more about impact investment and how it relates to our aid sector.

Also, tickets are now on sale for the Australasian Aid Conference, from 17-19 February at ANU in Canberra. The conference is run by the brilliant Development Policy Centre, which you heard about a few weeks back when I had Stephen Howes on the show. I’ll be at the conference, I’ll be interviewing a lot of the keynote speakers, and I’ll be hosting the Conference dinner! I would love to see lots of you there, so if you haven’t bought your ticket already, get on to it!

https://devpolicy.crawford.anu.edu.au/annual-australasian-aid-conference/2020

Enjoy,

Rachel and the GWH Team