iO₂ Spoke at CSEIF 2018: “ Impact Investment can be boosted by application of AI, Blockchain, Cloud Computing and Big Data”
On 31 May and 1 June 2018, the most influential conference in the social enterprise and investment sector in China, the annual conference of China Social Enterprise and Investment Forum (“CSEIF”) was successfully held in Shenzhen, China. Impact Oxygen Foundation (“iO₂”)’s Chief Social Scientist, Dr. Tat Lam, was also in the conference.
CSEIF 2018: Poverty Alleviation through Impact Investment
CSEIF 2018 Annual Conference is organized by CSEIF with China Foundation for Poverty Alleviation as CSEIF Rotating Presidency, under the support of UNDP China. This year’s conference included 1 plenary session, 8 breakout sessions, 2 interactive workshops and SE Market with more than 20 social enterprises, as well as 2018 Shape the Future Social Enterprise and Investment Awards Ceremony and SE Roadshows. More than 800 guests attended the conference.
2018 Speakers
Cross-sector speakers were gathered at CSEIF 2018 to promote social innovation and social entrepreneurship with business wisdom. The speakers include: Ma Weihua, President of National Fund for Technology Transfer and Commercialization and Chair of Board of China Global Philanthropy Institute; He Jie, Vice Governor of Shenzhen District Government; Nicholas Rosellini, UN Resident Coordinator in China; Doug Miller, Chairman of Asia Venture Philanthropy Network (AVPN); Adam Bendell, CEO of Toniic; Tang Ronghan, President of eHong Capital, etc.
The Theme of 2018 CSEIF
The theme of this year’s CSEIF annual conference is Poverty Alleviation through Impact Investment. Despite the continuous growth of the world economy and the gradual reduction of the global poverty population, global poverty is still one of the greatest challenges in the world. Poverty alleviation remains as one of the most important goals for international development in both the Millennium Development Goals and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) set by United Nations. It is also a clear target set by the Chinese government. According to this year’s Government Work Report, more will be done to alleviate poverty in China through the development of local industries, education, and healthcare, and through the development and conservation of local ecological resources.
The above-mentioned sectors overlap with the key sectors of impact investment. That’s why the 2018 annual conference of CSEIF discussed how to leverage impact investment for the scaling up of social enterprises as accelerated efforts for targeted poverty alleviation.
iO₂ at CSEIF 2018
Dr. Tat Lam, Chief Impact Strategist at iO₂, participated in 2 breakout sessions of impact investment on 1 June 2018, shared his experiences in this very industry. In a breakout session organised by E-Hong Capital(上海禹闳投资管理有限公司), Lam shared with guests that, by applying blockchain, impact metrics and impact validation technologies, social impact data would become more transparent and bigger in volume, and thus enabling more reliable impact measurement and making better impact investment decisions.
The Social Impact Bond Discussion
In this session, Dr. Lam had an insightful social impact bond dialogue with Li Nan from UNDP China (“UNDP”). A good question about social impact bond (“SIB”) was asked from the stage, Lam and Li provided two angels of pros and cons about it. They both agreed that SIB was good but the key problem, as pointed out by Li Nan from UNDP, was the cost and middleman and middle process. That’s one of the main reasons iO₂ has been working on developing blockchain and AI technologies to lower the above-mentioned cost dramatically.
In another breakout session titled “Blockchain, Impact Data Science and Pay-for-success Model”, Dr. Lam, as forum moderator, explained the application of blockchain and AI would elevate the opportunities for venture philanthropy and social investment to contribute towards achieving the 2030 SDGs.
What is 2030 SDGs?
2030 Sustainable development goals (‘SDGs”), refers to a set of 17 sustainable development goals and 169 targets, adopted by countries on September 25th 2015, to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all as part of a new sustainable development agenda. Each goal has specific targets to be achieved by 2030.
The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) predicts achieving the SDGs will take between US$5 to $7 trillion, with an investment gap in developing countries of about $2.5 trillion.
Who is going to cover these gaps and how?
Dr. Lam highlighted at the breakout session that by developing AI and blockchain, we were able to gradually lower the investment cost of social impact investment from 20% to 0.5% of the budget. The lower the cost and the less the middleman, the more people will join the market of impact investment. “iO₂’s goal is to make impact investment mainstream, through lowering the cost and advancing risk tolerance mechanism with technologies. All investment fund can be deployed to solve the problems”, said the Chief Social Scientist.
How could we ensure impact measurement work? Lam suggested an “ A, B, C, D” solution. AI, Blockchain, Cloud Computing and Big Data altogether, could reduce information inequality and advance social good; enable economic growth and financial inclusion; increase transparency and enable social impact investment investors to make better decisions. Dr. Tat Lam will speak more on the topic “Big Data for Social Impact”on 4 June 2018 at AVPN Conference 2018 in Singapore. Follow us to grab the latest updates of iO₂ in AVPN 2018.
China Social Enterprise and Investment Forum (CSEIF)
CSEIF was jointly initiated by a group of 17 Chinese foundations and venture philanthropy organizations in 2014. Its vision is to create a positive ecosystem to support the development of social enterprises and investment in China. Find out more about CSEIF 2018: http://cseif-2018-en.eventdove.com
Impact Oxygen Foundation (iO₂)
Impact Oxygen Foundation, iO₂, is a decentralized autonomous organization for crowd-enhanced impact investment on the blockchain, underpinned by iO₂ Token which incentivizes the communities to provide trusted data for impact measurement. Since 2015, the iO₂ team has successfully developed and executed over a dozen social impact projects in China via its service platform named “ShanZhai City” (shanzhaicity.com), and now are engaging blockchain-based projects in Myanmar, Laos, Thailand and Brazil.
Interact with iO2 on Telegram:
https://t.me/io2_impact_oxygen
Follow us and and find out more about iO2:
Website: https://www.impactdatachain.com/
LinkedIn: @io2foundation
Twitter: @impact_oxygen
Dr. Tat Lam’s Medium: @io2_tatlam
