NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Once a niche activity exclusive to the wealthy and philanthropic-minded, impact investing is now championed by a growing number of leading institutions in the capital markets. As a recent G8 taskforce on impact investing predicted, the 20th Century approach to investing, based on risk and return, will be replaced by a 21st Century model built on risk, return and impact. However, such a shift is by no means inevitable with critics questioning the staying power of impact investing in mainstream finance.

Join editors of The Economist and more than 200 leading financiers, institutional investors, policymakers, academics, impact investors and philanthropies to analyse the main opportunities and obstacles to the mainstreaming of impact investment. It will be an important conversation: how trillions of dollars will be invested is at stake.

For more information about the event, please visit impactinvesting.economist.com

NextBillion is a media partner with the event, and our readers can get 15% off with the code NEXTBILLION15.

Launch of FSG’s new report “Informal Housing, Inadequate Property Rights” and a panel discussion. The report applies a property rights lens to segment informal housing in India, understand the needs of the segments, and identify potential solutions.

We will share findings on living conditions and needs in the different informal housing segments, and discuss these insights with a panel of experts.

• Mr. Arun Kumar Misra, IAS, Ex-Secretary, Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation, Government of India
• Mr. Gautam Bhan, Indian Institute of Human Settlements
• Ms. Veena Mankar, Swadhaar Finserve
• Ms. Shreya Deb, Omidyar Network
• Mr. Vikram Jain, FSG

Save the date to join Economist editors and 200 financiers, institutional investors, policymakers, academics, impact investors and philanthropists at the second iteration of Investing for Impact: Thursday, February 15th 2018.

The discussion at this year’s conference will cover the ways in which the world is at a crossroads, and how the growing uncertainty is creating an increase in interest from investors.

Inequality is rising. Climate change is starting to make its presence felt, as the international effort
to fight it falters. Economic globalization, which has delivered huge increases in prosperity for many but not all, is under threat from nationalistic populism. There are good reasons to believe that the world will continue to prosper; yet, far more than in recent years, there are also good reasons to worry that things could take a serious turn for the worse.

Investors can see where the world is heading and how that changes the outlook for risk and return and thus how they should put their capital to work. This greater interest is leading to a growing recognition that investors can play a crucial role in determining the result of this battle of seismic economic, social, technological and geopolitical forces, investing in ways that help the world move in a positive direction, rather than decline, and make money as they do so.