This report reviews the implications of the expansion of FIs for the LRAs in the new MFF. It will first describe the rationale for the use of financial instruments for territorial development and their role during the 2007-2013 MFF. It will then analyse the implications for LRAs, first on the rationale and logic for LRAs to set up and promote such instruments, followed on a discussion on the ability of the LRAs to access the financial instruments as beneficiaries.

Social investment can offer entrepreneurs the chance to scale up their impact tremendously, but it can also lead to unintended consequences, such as a change in strategic direction, a divergence from the original values and mission of the enterprise, a distancing from direct engagement with the community it is serving, or a loss of control over the organizational culture. Given this, the need for a manual is ever more important for social entrepreneurs.

The second Global Financial Development Report seeks to contribute to the evolving debate on financial inclusion. It follows the inaugural 2013 Global Financial Development Report, which re-examined the state’s role in finance following the global financial crisis. Both reports seek to avoid simplistic views, and instead take a nuanced approach to financial sector policy based on a synthesis of new evidence.

This report aims to inform financial policymakers and regulators on how to develop a strategy for gathering financial inclusion data using surveys of different kinds. Depending on the financial resources and skills available, as well as stakeholder appetite for data, these strategies can range from simply leveraging already available data sets, to modifying existing surveys to include new questions on financial inclusion, or even to designing and implementing a new financial survey.

The European Code of Good Conduct for Microcredit Provision provides a set of standards in terms of management, governance, risk management, reporting, and consumer and investor relations that are common to the microcredit sector in the European Union. These standards are for the benefit of customers, investors, funders, owners, regulators and partner organisations.

As part of the “Tackling Disadvantage at a time of Limited Resources” project, the OECD LEED Programme organised an expert seminar in collaboration with the Development Centre’s Global Network of Foundations Working for Development (netFWD) on 15 April 2015 in Paris. The title of this seminar was “Social Impact Bonds: Promises and Pitfalls”.

Social impact bonds are a results-based form of social impact investment. Private investors provide capital to launch or expand innovative social services that provide a public good. If the expected social benefits are achieved at the end of a given period, investors receive back their capital plus a rate of return negotiated with public authorities and varying with the level of results achieved). Social impact bonds are increasingly common in the United Kingdom, as well as in the United States and Australia, and have begun to be used in a number of other EU Member States.

The Social Europe guide is a bi-annual publication aimed at providing audience with a concise overview of specific areas of EU policy in the field of employment, social affairs and inclusion.

The single market needs new, inclusive growth, focused on employment for all, underpinning the growing desire of Europeans for their work, consumption, savings and investments to be more closely attuned to and aligned with 'ethical' and 'social' principles.