Desk Report: Impact investment is defined as investments made with the intention to generate positive, measurable social and environmental impact alongside a financial return. The ‘seeding fertile ground’ for impact investment in Bangladesh gave the National Advisory Board (NAB) for Impact Investment in Bangladesh the confidence to develop and publish the Bangladesh Impact Investment Strategy and Action Plan (BIISAP) in 2022 and host the international conference on Impact Investment – “Impact InveStory”.
“Impact InveStory” was a daylong conference highlighting the implementation plan of the BIISAP while sharing impact investment stories from across the globe and from local champions of course.
Today (August 02 2022) The Minister for Planning Muhammad Abdul Mannan MP, was the chief guest and launched the national strategy along with the NAB Bangladesh Chair Md Sirazul Islam at BIDA multipurpose hall. He strongly acknowledged the inspiration and leadership role played by the Hon. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in supporting the concept of Impact Investment, who launched the first Impact Investment campaign for Bangladesh at a side event in New York at the United Nations General Assembly meeting in 2017. In their speeches,
Mr Salman F Rahman, the Private and Investment Adviser to the Hon. Prime Minister, Professor Shibli Rubayat-Ul-Islam, Chairman of BSEC, along with the senior representation from the Bangladesh Bank emphasized the proactive actions taken by the Bangladesh Government to enable both local and global impact investors to invest in Bangladesh. The Impact InveStory conference also had other distinguished speaker’s like the Jonathan Wong from UNESCAP, Ambassador Nathalie Chuard from Switzerland, Ambassador Mustafa Osman Turan from Turkiye and also Ms Safak Muderrisgil, president of the Turkiye NAB.
The NAB Chair acknowledged the contributions made by the Embassy of Switzerland from day one of this movement, not only as a member of the National Advisory Board but also as the key sponsor to develop this National Strategy and Action Plan. Expressing Switzerland’s support to ensure an effective implementation of BIISAP, Ambassador Chuard said that her country is implementing the B-Briddhi programme that assists high-potential impact enterprises in securing funding and scaling their operations. Sir Ronald Cohen and Cliff Prior from the Global Steering Group (GSG) for Impact Investment praised the dynamic progress of the Impact Investment Ecosystem building activities in Bangladesh. Mr Asif Saleh, Executive Director from BRAC also highlighted the contributions made by the private sector including the not-for-profit sectors to facilitate the Impact investment movements in Bangladesh.
The BIISAP is based on research and feedback from stakeholders across the Bangladesh impact investing ecosystem. Fifteen in-depth interviews and workshop consisting of 35 stakeholders were conducted, reflecting the views of impact entrepreneurs, impact investors, impact accelerators and incubators, policymakers, and ecosystem intermediaries. The BIISAP has identified nine (9) strategic recommendations under five (5) priority intervention areas as the starting points for the impact investment ecosystem building process.
