Exploration of three social issue themes
Tackling Three Complex and Wicked Social Issues
The size of impact investing in the world reached $1 trillion in 2022. In the business sector, investors, entrepreneurs, and other players are talking about the SDGs and the concept of sustainability like never before. However, has such voices and concepts made us happier than before? And is the natural environment and humanity really becoming more sustainable? These are the questions we are facing now.
Since its establishment, SIIF has been working to promote the concept and methodology of impact investing. The objective is to increase the amount of funds invested in solving social and environmental challenges. While these objectives remain the same. We launched a project aimed at actually solving complex issues through impact investing, in other words, inducing system change.
To this end, we have decided social issues to focus on. Specifically, we identified three themes: 1) the exhaustion of the medical and healthcare systems, 2) the widening economic disparity, and 3) the decline of local economies and the disappearance of communities.
All of these social issues are complex problems. Japan faces these challenges because it has entered a period of declining birthrates and aging populations at the fastest pace in the world. SIIF will address these structural solutions by updating its impact investing. Collaboration with diverse partners is essential.
In order to develop a vision for tackling these challenges, SIIF conducted a structural analysis of the challenges and developed system maps of issues for each area. These maps are not completed versions and will be evolved as we proceed with “system change investment” projects for the issues and obtain findings from the project outcomes and feedback from various stakeholders.
In 2023, based on the system maps, we also published a “vision paper” for each focus area that includes Theory of Changes and our action plans regarding the system-level interventions needed to solve the issues.