Most of CEN’s members are charities and are organised within the Social Enterprise model spectrum.
We are very interested in developing a programme that uses the Social Impact Investment model. This has been successfully applied overseas and the elements for success are available in New Zealand but it has yet to be effectively implemented here. Key roadblocks at this stage include:
- Very difficult to develop appropriate level of engagement across all ministries that would benefit from this work including; Ministries of Health and Social Development as well as ACC and Treasury. The Justice and Education Ministries would also receive benefit from this work but we recognise that this may need to be quantified before expecting direct engagement.
- There are a number of Government programmes such as the Healthy Homes Initiative and the Rheumatic Fever Prevention Programme that are good at finding where the issues are but are poor at implementing successful interventions (EECA has been the most successful).
Important areas the Government could help with:
- A national commitment to paying back private investment where we can prove that our home interventions have been successful. This is a zero risk commitment for the government in terms of outcomes. CEN are developing a pilot that will include a clear ‘measure of success’ that would benefit greatly from direct support from Government.
- Provision of the infrastructure to enable work with a diverse set of stakeholders (local government, philanthropic investors, governance support) to maximise the benefit of the interventions.
- Providing tax incentives for private investors to offset higher perceived risks associated with investing in social sector. Note that these risks may or may not be real, but given the immaturity of the SII market, attitude to be risk will probably be conservative.
- Seed funding to support the development of social enterprise sector infrastructure – intermediaries, increasing skill set and capacity in management and governance of community enterprises, development of investment products.
