Social Impact Investing

determining views of affected communities on risks, effects and mitigation measures based on a
sound socio-economic baseline study.
The IFC Performance Standards are generally seen as the benchmark for ESIA's and insert this
in an overarching Envrironmental and Social Risk Management System, which is based on
proven risk management techniques. The IFC Performance Standard is used by multinational
companies and commercial investors. Commercial banks have united themselves under the
Equator Principles with over 90 members in 37 countries.
SIA overlaps with monitoring and evaluation (M&E). Evaluation is particularly important in the
areas of:
1. public policy,
2. health and education initiatives, and
3. international development projects more generally, whether conducted by governments,
international donors, or NGOs.
In all these sectors, there is a case for conducting SIA and evaluations at different stages.
The Hydropower Sustainability Assessment Protocol is a sector specific method for checking
the quality of environmental and social assessments and management plans.
Non-experts and local people should participate in the design and implementation of proposed
developments or programmes. This can be achieved in the process of doing an SIA, through
adopting a participatory and democratic research process. Some SIAs go further than this, to
adopt an advocacy role. For example, several SIAs carried out in Queensland, Australia, have
been conducted by consultants working for local Aboriginal communities who oppose new
mining projects on ancestral land. A rigorous SIA report, showing real consequences of the
projects and suggesting ways to mitigate these impacts, gives credibility and provides evidence
to take these campaigns to the planning officers or to the courts.
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