UN Summit of the Future at Climate Week: Are we measuring the right things? Do we value the right outcomes?

Our Impact Analyst, Laura Moore, recently spent some time in New York at the UN Summit of the Future which took place during climate week. Read on to see her reflections…

If we hope to design the future we wish to live in, we must change the way we value how we live today. Last weekend at the United Nations Summit of the Future Action Days, youth were invited to participate in discussions to address gaps in global sustainable development, the challenges in achieving development for all, and potential solutions— I was honored to be invited but was left with many questions including:

  • Are we measuring the right things?

  • If we measure what we value and value what we measure, are we placing value on the right indicators? 

Today’s structures were designed many decades ago to solve the challenges of the past, yet we find ourselves unsatisfied with the outcomes of today that cause poverty rates to increase and large corporations incentivized to harm the environment. Organizations and institutions must be restructured to face the needs of today and the challenges of tomorrow while becoming more agile and responsive to adapt to the now rapidly and continually changing world. A key step forward in achieving this goal is creating new indicators to guide us in moving toward the outcomes that are grounded in the voices of the vulnerable. 

Today approximately 47 percent of the Sustainable Development Goals lack the data needed to track progress. Additionally, community challenges and vulnerabilities are still seen as requiring charitable donations rather than as opportunities for investment. Never before has the value of Social Return on Investment (SROI) and Impact Measurement and Management (IMM) been so evident. Their potential to serve as key methods that allow us to redevelop today’s structures by tracking the right information needed to ensure sustainable progress is massive. 

SROI’s participatory methodology allows for solutions to be developed from community voices, rather than from the privileged who don’t really understand the conditions and experiences of those living with SDG challenges. This method acknowledges that today’s challenges are interconnected and interdependent and that solutions to these challenges must also be. 

A key point raised during the Action Day discussions is that not only must structures be reformed and their current vulnerabilities recognized, but that investment risk must be redefined to incorporate traditionally non-quantifiable impacts. SROI and IMM offer a methodology where risk profiles can be redesigned to attract investment and uplift communities rather than further perpetuate existing vulnerabilities by showing investors how investing in community development through participatory methodologies can provide a return on investment. The United Nations Capital Development Fund has started taking steps to reduce risk in these areas, demonstrating that investment is indeed possible.

By developing new indicators, restructuring institutions, and enabling nations to collect relevant data, we can empower communities across the globe to collaborate in addressing the challenges of today for the world of tomorrow. By partnering with organizations across the globe to develop their SROI and IMM skills, SVT Group is working at the forefront of this movement. Through our SROI work in a variety of development contexts; we have displayed that SROI and IMM can be applied in a way that supports us in redefining how we view aid and investment.

The future is here. What story do we want to tell, and how will the global community come together to achieve an equitable, peaceful, and prosperous future? We must not stop here, leaving these words on the page or hanging in the air. Instead, we must turn them into action. We must recognize the vulnerabilities in today’s systems and work together to create new institutions capable of meeting the challenges of the future.

If you want to be a part of the change in developing new indicators to guide your organization to reach desired outcomes, contact SVT Group today!