The document discusses the growing challenge of global inequality exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, which has significantly increased poverty levels and strained access to essential services. It emphasizes the need for innovative funding strategies and sustainable investment in social enterprises to address these issues effectively. Partnerships for Impact (P4I) is introduced as a facilitator that connects donors with organizations capable of creating long-term social value, aiming to mobilize resources for lasting change.

1. POSTED ON DECEMBER 17, 2021
Author: CK Mishra, Former Secretary, Government Of India
And Founder And Co-Lead, Partnerships For Impact
Inequality is arguably one of the biggest challenges of our
times, and it continues to grow wider and deeper with some
worrying statistics. The richest 1% of the population controls
almost half of the world’s wealth and the World Bank
estimates that the pandemic has pushed 88-115 million more
people into poverty in addition to the nearly 690 million
already living in extreme poverty. 2.2 billion people do not
get clean drinking water and 45% of the world population
does not have access to a safely managed sanitation
services. Apart from the inequalities and inequities, the last
couple of decades have also seen tremendous ecological
and environmental degradation due to adverse climate
change effects. Global temperatures are increasing, and 18 of
the 19 warmest years on record have occurred since 2001.
Most of these challenges have become more pronounced in
the last two years as the COVID-19 pandemic raged across,
and left a trail of devastation, in countries. As it did, we also
saw a reversal of previously made progress on several issues
and many activities to address them were put on the back
burner as the world focused on controlling the virus.
It might still be too early to estimate the long term
consequences of the pandemic, but there is clear evidence
of the devastating impact specially in low and middle-
income countries. In the early months of the pandemic last
year, as we started anticipating the gravity of the pandemic
and the challenges that would come our way, the United
Nation Secretary General called for two pronged approach
to address the overwhelming situation we were in. He urged
us, on one hand, to contain the virus, while also continuing
to focus on people particularly, women, youth, low-wage
workers, small and medium enterprises, the informal sector
and vulnerable groups already at risk. The underlying plea
was to work together to save lives, restore livelihoods,
address poverty and slowly bring about an economic revival.
However, the focus we had hoped to keep on the latter
could not be sustained.
The urgency to address these issues – and ensure that we
don’t lose too much of the progress we had previously
gained – cannot be overstated. To be able to do so, we need
innovative strategies and solutions as well as a significant
influx of capital to see them to fruition. However, to be able
to be able to tackle these old – and new – challenges, we
need a fresh approach to funding in India.
Traditionally, philanthropy has been a primary source of
funding for social-impact and grassroot organizations
working on vital social development issues. However, what
tends to happen, is that such funding, while it is able to
provide seed funding for an enterprise, it is unable to
address the scale-up of organizations or interventions.
Organizations working to create impactful solutions at scale
require sustainable strategies for medium to long-term
financial support. But very often what we see is that impact-
Partnerships for Impact:
Enabling Investments to
Maximise Social Impact
17
Dec

2. fund-managers either miss or are unable to identify
enterprises, interventions or innovations that have the
potential to be transformative and also have the capacity to
absorb significant amounts of capital. Smaller enterprise are
also very diverse, operate at different levels of risk and
might not have the same measures for success. In such a
scenario, it can be difficult for a potential donor or investor
to see the long-term value and impact and they choose not
to invest.
For small enterprises the exercise of measuring long-term
impact can also be a very daunting undertaking and thus
they struggle to find funding. The challenges for such
organizations have been further exacerbated in this
pandemic, as many have lost existing avenues of funding
and struggled to sustain their efforts. While some were able
to recover, others operating on shoe string budgets were
unable to survive as funds dried up and no new funding
came their way.
COVID brought with it unique and unprecedented
challenges, and it is becoming increasingly clear that they
cannot be solely addressed by the old model of government
and philanthropic interventions. The answer to tackling these
growing and intractable problems lies in a new, innovative
approach, including harnessing the power of business and
private sector stakeholders, if we want to achieve an
equitable world as envisioned in the SDGs just a few years
ago – investing in an ‘immediate, reactive’ manner will not
work. With traditional funding, investments in initiatives tend
to be short-term, and end with pilots ultimately creating
very little long-term value. They are one-time, stand-alone
experiments that go away with the funder. The need of the
hour is to create a platform where pilot initiatives get
converted to scale and eventually transferred to government
and/to other responsible agencies that can ensure their
continuance. However, in order to optimise new investments
and the urgency of addressing the pandemic impact,
including reversing the systemic and social conditions, a
deeper understanding and knowledge of on-the-ground
partners, challenges and issues is required to identify
solutions and test scalable and sustainable models.
This is where Partnerships for Impact (P4i) comes in. We act
as a medium between the donor/investor and
enterprise/entrepreneur and help facilitate, mobilize and
build sustainable investments for long-term impact. We
work to ensure that donors are able to find and fund social
enterprises and grass-root organizations who have the
potential to create value and bring about change and that
their investment is well-utilized. At the same time, we work
with organizations looking for investors, and helping them
build their capacity to become more visible, develop a
sustainable, long-term strategy, and be able to measure their
impact, thus equipping them to attract more funding and
investors.
P4i is uniquely placed to do support both organizations
looking for social-impact investment opportunities as well as
those seeking investors due its access to a vast network of
developmental organizations and agencies, national and
international NGOs, corporates, philanthropists, and other
small and large donors. We have engaged with many such
donors and philanthropists and are well-placed to
understand their interests and goals. Additionally, the team
at P4i has combined experience across a variety of social
and development issues, and of working with different
stakeholder groups including government, non-government
and private organizations and institutions. This gives us
unique insight into how each of these sectors operate as well
as the dynamics of the players in them.
We work closely with a diverse panel of experts – in fields
ranging from science, medicine, economics, health,
education, gender, agriculture and food systems, finance
and business – to better understand the developmental
challenges that we face today, identify issues that need
particular attention, and get their expertise in implementing
our projects.
Today, as we start recovering from the pandemic, and
acclimatize to the ‘new normal’, we need to draw our
attention back to the challenges and issues that took a
backseat, while controlling the virus, aiding relief and
emergency efforts, and developing a vaccine became top
priority. The innovative solutions to these challenges we
believe, will come from social-impact enterprises and grass-

3. root organisations, and support from the donor and investor
community will play a crucial role in ensuring lasting change.
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