Social Innovation Tag

June 1, 2014
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Assessing possible approaches for the Malaysian government looks to get more value from investments in the social sector By 
Kal Joffres Social impact bonds have become an increasingly discussed topic in Malaysia. But what exactly are they and when does using them make sense? Are there better approaches to getting value out of social sector programmes? This paper compares social impact bonds and evidence-based impact investments as strategies for increasing government returns for investments in social programmes. How do social impact bonds work? A...

May 10, 2014
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By Kal Joffres In the past year, we've spoken to a number of government agencies and foundations that want to create benefits specifically for social enterprises. Many of these policies never materialize because agencies don't have a reliable way of determining what is and what isn't a social enterprise. That's a task that we've taken up by creating the Social Enterprise Policy Working Group. The group's goal is to provide what we're calling a ‘legally operationalisable’ definition of social enterprise. In other words,...

February 1, 2014
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By Kal Joffres “I always tell people that what Malaysia needs is a brand new narrative. There is a lot of cynicism and skepticism. We need to create a new movement to overwrite the current story that's being told.” — Ehon Chan [caption id="attachment_5932" align="aligncenter" width="1024"] Grace Sai, Ehon Chan, and Harvey Koh[/caption] Not many Malaysians know who Ehon Chan is but his message has special resonance with many looking to create social change locally. As co-founder of Hub Sydney, Ehon is building...

December 14, 2013
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By Kal Joffres In early November, we launched a social business at the Global Social Business Summit called Yunus & Youth. It was launched with Nobel Laureate Mohammad Yunus and it all happened in less than 24 hours. This is the story of how it happened and much of it, I think, serves as a reminder of how launching a startup is more about doing and seizing the moment rather than planning to do. It all started as a passing comment. "We keep...