The Equality Impact Investing Project (EIIP) is working to harness social and impact investing to tackle inequality. Social Investment Business was both a founding partner in, and is the current host of, EIIP. A dedicated EIIP website is currently being constructed but in the mean time key information and updates about the project can be found on this page.
Applications have now closed for EIIP's pioneering new training programme - Equality Impact Investing: From Principles to Practice.
Find out about future opportunities by getting in touch.
About the Equality Impact Investing Project
EIIP aims to better harness the growing social impact investing movement to tackle inequality and advancing human rights, in the UK and beyond.
“ Inequalities based on income , sex, age, disability, sexual orientation, race, class, ethnicity, religion and opportunity continue to persist across the world, within and among countries. Inequality threatens long term social and economic development, harms poverty reduction and destroys people’s sense of fulfillment and self- worth. Most importantly, we cannot achieve sustainable development and make the planet better for all if people are excluded from opportunities, services, and the chance for a better life.” - UN Sustainable Development Goal 10 – Reducing Inequalities.
We do this by bringing together both the social finance and equality and human rights actors to build the field, and the market for equality impact investing, a form of social impact investing that aims to deliver positive equality impact (see figures 4 and 6 below). For more information, please see our flagship report, Equality Impact Investing: From Principles to Practice.
Figure 4
Our work to date
Since it’s founding in 2018 the EIIP has:
- Defined clear principles and strategies for EII, assessed the extent these are being used, what conditions would support an increase and recommendations for action. For more information see our first major publication - the Summary and Full Report are available to download at the bottom of this page.
- Established an EII taskforce made up of key strategic actors in both social finance and equality and human rights, from public, VCSE and private sectors to co-ordinate and collaborate on both delivering and further developing these recommendations.
- Convened a social impact investor’s summit to give focused space to consider sector responses to the inequality impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. This highlighted the imperative to increase both the pace and the depth of action to tackle inequality by the UK social impact investment sector.
Our priorities and plans for 2020/2021
We now plan to both build on and develop this work with a particular focus on increasing the social impact investment sector’s focus on, and capacity to respond to, the inequality impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Activities will include:
- The EII Taskforce. We will continue convening and developing the Taskforce, which brings together organisations who are working to deliver and further develop the agenda in our 2019 report in a co-ordinated way. EIIP is tracking and supporting Taskforce members to further integrate EII impact goals, measures and practices, and will expand Taskforce membership over the coming year.
- Investor capacity building. Developing and delivering a series of EII training/learning sets and an enhanced digital guidance that channels and builds on the EIIP’s foundational report.
- EII field-building and market development to develop the conditions for an increase in EII; improved impact management, standards and learning, aligning equality and social investment policy and EII in a place-based context. We will convene a series of roundtables to delve into and progress these areas with sector counterparts.
- Strategic communications: We will continue to build and promote knowledge exchange and awareness of EII through strategic communications. The EIIP website, with interactive functionality is being developed that will act as the key interface with our work and will host a regular e-newsletter, guest blogs, promoted case studies and range of other resources, produced by us and others.
Who we are
The EIIP is a collaborative initiative that brings together a range of social finance and equality and human rights organisations and actors, from public, VCSE and private sectors, via a taskforce, advisory board and various sub groups/ projects to deliver on our goals.
Our Project Director is Ceri Goddard and our Senior Associate is Rana Zincir Celal.
Our work to date and for the next 12 months is supported by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport’s Inclusive Economy Unit and the Connect Fund.
Contact/ Follow us
Email: info@equalityimpactinvesting.com
Twitter: @equality_impact
