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

Monday, March 10, 2014

Impact investing is all about meeting needs. It places capital in businesses that provide human essentials such as water, power, food, education and healthcare. At the same time, it helps meet the needs of the planet and its non-human inhabitants by fostering business approaches that protect ecosystems and conserve natural resources.

Keeping a close eye on need—and the perception of need—is one of the keys to successful impact investing. Now a digital survey is shining new light on what people around the world think they need to have a better future.

Launched by the UN in 2012, My World is an ongoing global survey and data aggregation project. It lets users choose from a list of sixteen issues derived from research and polling exercises with poor populations, as well as the Millennium Development Goals with additional issues of sustainability, security, governance and transparency. Users rank the issues that they think “would make the most difference to their lives” and the results are aggregated into a live online database of results.