By Utkarsh Narain and Shyam Datye
“Accountants are going to save the world!”, claimed Peter Bakker, the Chairman of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development at the UN Conference on Sustainable Development in 2013. Green finance might just be their opportunity to do that.
The Southeast Asian healthcare ecosystem is undergoing a metamorphosis: disruptive technologies, innovative financing arrangements, and new delivery models are playing a crucial role in meeting the region’s evolving healthcare needs and growing demand. Public health trends such as population ageing and rising deaths tolls from non-communicable diseases (NCDs) are being exacerbated by the lack of affordability of healthcare and the deterioration of public service provision in many developing countries. COVID-19 has illuminated the inability of many governments to respond timely and effectively to health crises, demonstrating the need for private capital to advance universal health coverage (UHC).
Continue reading Impact Investing in Healthcare: Trends, Opportunities and Challenges
Climate change has been at the heart of developmental debates since almost three decades. From the Rio Summit of 1992 to the Paris Agreement of 2018, governments around the world have made commitments to mitigate the impact of global warming. Many businesses and individuals have also taken upon themselves to minimise their negative impact on the environment. The rapid degradation of environment and natural resources has made the world question conventional notions of economic growth and sparked a debate on the trade-offs between economic growth and environmental sustainability.
Continue reading The ‘Super Wicked Problem’ of Climate Change
The male-female binary serves as a common point of reference for conversations on gender identity, gender expression, and sexual orientation. The premise that biological sex and gender are binary and wholly aligned with each other means that people situated elsewhere along the gender spectrum—particularly those who are non-binary or non-conforming—are often overlooked.
Continue reading Beyond the Binary: Exploring Queer Lens Investing
Gender has a material effect on social, economic, and political experience. In nearly every aspect of life, there is a discernible difference between the opportunities available to men, women, and non-binary or non-conforming individuals; this in turn results in gaps in attainment along various dimensions including education, health, and livelihoods. These gaps pose persistent challenges to policymakers who strive to minimize the differences in policy impact across various segments of their target populations.
COVID-19 has brought the issue of sustainability into sharp focus across the world. Whether it’s the disproportionate impact of strict lockdowns on underserved groups or decrease in pollution levels because of the slowdown in economic activity, the pandemic has spurred a global dialogue on the socio-economic and environmental costs of continuing with ‘business as usual’.
On June 27, 2020, three cohorts of Lee Kuan Yew School students came together for the first-ever SIG Soirée, an evening of drinks, games and conversation among members of the School’s Social Investment Group (SIG) since its founding.
