Investing for Social Impact in Developing Countries

Social impact investors seek social and environmental impact from their investments, in addition to financial returns. This chapter discusses the potential of social impact investment for developing countries, highlighting several examples to demonstrate how it works in practice. It examines the challenges, including assessing whether interventions have achieved their intended impact and expanding the evidence base. The public sector can promote social impact investment, for example by providing risk capital to enable the private sector to offer affordable,accessible, quality products and services to the poorest populations. The chapter makes recommendations for increasing the reach and the scale of social impact investment