Context and social relevance
2015 marked the beginning of a global agenda for transformative change, as world leaders adopted the United Nations’ 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, including the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The SDGs provide goals and targets for the international community to tackle global issues including poverty, inequality and environmental degradation. The goals are time-bound and universal, encouraging stakeholder networks to come together around a common purpose. Additionally, they provide an opportunity for actors across sectors and regions to collaborate, sharing knowledge and practices in order to achieve better results . Since the establishment of the 2030 Agenda, there has been evidence of such collaboration, noticeable from the proliferation of online platforms, data engines and coalitions aspiring to contribute to the SDGs.
While overall a positive development, the implementation of the 2030 Agenda has also brought several delivery challenges to the fore. First, it is clear that even those organizations operating at the forefront in sustainability often lack the internal systems to manage their impact strategically and connect to the resources and partners they need to deliver on their mandates. For example, a 2016 CEO survey by UN Global Compact showed that only 13% of participating companies had the systems in place to manage their impact . Second, while the delivery of the 2030 Agenda requires greater collaboration between actors, a highly fragmented ecosystem of coalitions, platforms, and marketplaces complicates our collective ability to achieve this.
To validate our belief that today’s systems are not ‘fit for purpose’, we asked close to 200 practitioners in sustainability about their single largest challenge at work. Their response: Not having the insights, networks, and resources they need to deliver on their mandates at their fingertips. Time for a ‘systems rethink’. Specifically, the ‘change makers’ we interviewed – expert practitioners from all sectors, geographies, value chains and impact areas – flagged four acute pain points in achieving impact success:
1. Many actors struggle to attract the resources they need to maximize their impact or, at a minimum, spend a lot of time identifying the right actors and networks to connect with;
2. The data needed to make the right investment and management decisions – and to make the business case for sustainability – is lacking as information systems fail to surface basic information about ongoing impact activities or portfolios. This is true at a market level but also inside organizations;
3. Top level agendas struggle to connect with on-the-ground needs and actions, an acute challenge that limits SDG success, and is experienced among global coalitions as well as inside large organizations;
4. With every new coalition, hub, or platform that is launched, our collective ability to be noticed, flag, or take notice of promising, high-impact, replicable solutions diminishes.
IMPACT PRO(FILER) is our big bet to transform our collective ability to deliver on the 2030 Agenda. It is a silo-busting impact technology built on one simple idea: empower change makers to multiply their impact through a single profile capturing their work, impact, and support needs. IMPACT PRO(FILER) captures and amplifies the value of existing networks and community portals by injecting the tools needed to connect and multiply what’s already there. The benefits of IMPACT PRO(FILER) for all sectors is clear. It empowers:
- Governments to accelerate and report out on their SDG commitments, contributions, and activities - connecting their policies to concrete on-the-ground actions in an unprecedented way.
- Corporations and investors to multiply the value and impact of their investments in sustainability by seamlessly integrating local partners, funders, and authorities in their supply chains.
- Social enterprises to attract the resources they needed efficiently and tap into a global universe of peers and certifications through a single account.
- NGOs to collaborate with their global donors and partners through a single portal that captures all their on-the-ground activities.
1.2 Objectives
The specific objectives of this H2020-SMEINT Phase 1 feasibility study were:
• Determine how C-Change should launch its SDG product offerings to the 50 most promising corporations.
• Elaborate a bankable business plan for the global expansion of C-Change.
