Merida, Mexico — On his trip to Mexico last week, the Pope called for a more ethical capitalism. “The flow of capital cannot decide the flow and life of people,” he said during a packed mass in the border town of Juarez.

A few thousand miles southeast, here in Merida, hundreds of investors, entrepreneurs and social justice advocates gathered to advance just such a financial system. The conversation at last week’s Latin America Impact Investing Forum, or FLII, tackled the challenge of redirecting capital towards businesses solving problems in the region’s poorest communities.

What we’re doing is going to change financial markets. It’s going to begin to allocate resources not on the basis of just risk and return, but on risk, return and impact.Sir Ronald Cohen

Now in its sixth year, the FLII is the largest impact investing gathering in Latin America. Discussions ranged from the potential of new social impact bonds and other pay-for-success models now popping up across Latin America; to the burgeoning interest of the region’s millennials trying to bring talent to the growing sector; to Brazil and Mexico’s entrance into the Global Impact Investing Steering Committee, the global body charged with promoting impact investing around the world and pushing for policy support in national markets.

For Latin America, a big question is how much support governments and big institutions are prepared to give the growing sector. Sir Ronald Cohen, often regarded as “the father of British venture capital,” was in Mexico to support the homegrown movement.

Cohen, who leads the Global Impact Investing Steering Committee, joined the conference to meet with impact investing leaders from Mexico, Brazil and Colombia. Cohen told the crowd that impact investing represented a revolution, disrupting business, philanthropy, government and civil society as we know it. In the future, financial markets will consider impact, alongside risk and return.

ImpactAlpha sat down with Cohen to discuss Latin America’s impact ecosystem, Wall Street’s role, and the threat of “rogue” impact investors. We were joined by Juan Del Cerro from Disruptivo.tv.

ImpactAlpha: As you travel around the world to conferences like this, what’s the level of enthusiasm you are seeing for impact investment?

Sir Ronald Cohen: The response has been great. Here at the Latin America Impact Investing Forum, for instance, there are people from more than 20 countries, all thoughtful, dynamic people, who’ve gone out of their way to come here. You realize this matters to a lot of people. And you can feel the atmosphere changing, country by country.

Disruptivo.tv: Can you explain the role of Global Impact Investing Steering Group?

Cohen: The U.K. government set up, on behalf of the G8, a task force to catalyze the global impact investment market. It did this in 2013 and we published our report a year later. The feeling was that we should not just stop. But if we wanted to continue we needed to broaden the group beyond the task force countries, the G8. So we decided to created a Global Steering Group, which would take the baton from the task force and push the implementation of impact investment across the world. The question was how many countries we would accept as members, because there’s a limit to how many new members we could absorb. We said we’ll take five, and the criteria is you’ve got a functioning task force in your country. This shows you are serious about impact investment. So we had invitations to join. We picked five countries from those who applied – Mexico, Brazil, India, Israel and Portugal – where a lot is happening in the country and a task force exists.

ImpactAlpha: Why was it important to add new members? 

Cohen: So each country has a shot at becoming the leader in impact investing. It’s not like tech, where you need an ecosystem that is complicated to put together. There are social issues everywhere across the world and there are entrepreneurs everywhere across the world. We’ve just been in a discussion with Colombia about post-conflict issues. Colombia could well innovate in this area if the right people pick it up and put the effort behind it and from there it can spread to other countries in the world.

The social issues differ and there are some things in common, so I’m interested in helping anybody serious who wants to try to get impact investing going in their country. So from here I’m going to Silicon Valley. Then I’m off to Washington D.C., where the Brooking Institute has a whole meeting scheduled with 250 people on social impact bonds. A couple of weeks later I’m going to India, I’m visiting three cities in India. And it’s all demand. Demand is pulling me rather than my having to go around pushing it.

What interests me, is just as with tech, as you began to discover that tech can happen anywhere in the world–I mean the United States dominated it hands down but there were great software writers in Sweden and Finland and elsewhere. I think with social it’s going to be the same. If we want to improve people’s lives we have to do things at scale. It has to be global from the get-go and we have to think in terms of interventions that can be scalable. Which is why we’re thinking about very large outcomes funds for specific issues.

ImpactAlpha: Will the outcomes fund be tied to the new Sustainable Development Goals?

Cohen: Not necessarily. Because there are 17 goals, I’m not sure we can go all the way through them. But education clearly is a major, major way of improving people’s lives. If you can prevent someone from dropping out of school or university, it’s probably the single biggest influence you can have on how their life goes after that. So why I am going around all these different countries? Because all of these different countries have got people there that deserve to be helped and there are people who want to help them.

Disruptivo.tv: What are a couple things that the rest of the world can learn from Latin America?

Cohen: I think each country has its own ecosystem. When I went to visit Brazil, I found everybody rather depressed by the inability of the government to tackle social issues because of budgets, because of the functioning of the government, and so on and so forth. When the idea of impact investment was developed by their task force and they began to speak to people, a coalition of people began to come together, including big corporations and big banks. It turns out that the big banks, for instance, have very big charitable foundations and that these charitable foundations could pay for the outcomes, instead of the government. So all of a sudden, in a place like Brazil, if you say I want to improve the dropout rate in schools where kids from the favelas are going, my bank foundation would pay on the outcome.

I’m interested in helping anybody serious who wants to try to get impact investing going in their country.Sir Ronald Cohen

So you can go raise a social impact bond, sign a contract with me, I’ll pay you if you make sure that the number of kids that drop out of school is reduced. So I think what’s interesting about that is obviously if you can impact somebody’s life early on in their education you have massive improvements in the lives they would lead. But it’s also a way of supplementing what the government can do, so that countries don’t just depend on government.

Wherever I go there in Mexico there seems to be people interested in impact investment. There seems to be a groundswell of support in Mexico for impact investment.

ImpactAlpha: How specifically does the Global Steering Committee support its members?

Cohen: Mainly through the transfer of knowledge and experience and expertise. Like in the U.S., which just changed its regulations around trustees of foundations and pension funds, it’s because of the National Advisory Board that this happened. In the U.K. you’ve got parallel legislation that just made it through parliament to do the same thing for foundation trustees. It can be very powerful for other countries as a precedent. They can say look, it’s been done in the U.K., it’s been done in the U.S., why shouldn’t it be done here?

We are looking at the possibility of creating a platform for connecting leaders in impact investment across the world. So you want to start a recidivism social impact bond, you send out the message, you create a roundtable, you can discuss the issue, you can move forward. On diabetes, you get together and move forward. So whoever just issued the social impact bond could spend time talking about the metrics for a diabetes bond. The U.S. has a huge diabetes issue, India, the whole Middle East.

ImpactAlpha:  Impact investing seems to have embraced Wall Street and the big financial institutions. Was this an intentional strategy and do you believe Wall Street can be, and be seen as, as a force for good?

Cohen: So I like to say: money’s like water, you can live without it and if it drowns you, it’s not such a good thing. From my perspective what we’re doing is going to change financial markets. It’s going to begin to allocate resources not on the basis of just risk and return, but on risk, return and impact. It’s a process that could take 20 or 30 years.

A lot of financial institutions have people in them who agree. It’s not easy for the financial institutions to change their models. But it seems to me what we want to do at this early stage of development of the field is focus on the people who believe this can work, not focus on persuading the skeptics. If those people are in the financial services business they may well come back with amazing ideas for reducing the cost of finance for certain parts of the population. When you begin to see the challenge of fintech entrants now into finance, reducing the cost of personal finance, or the cost of finance for businesses (that) has a big social impact in itself — quite apart from the support that they can bring to aggregating money from investors in social impact bonds of one kind or another.

I think it’s very important for us to focus on all those who are interested in impact investment, and those within financial organizations should be no exception.

ImpactAlpha: Say we set up this structure of risk, return and impact. Are you concerned at all about the accountability of wealthy individuals that might not share our values, let’s say Vladimir Putin, for example, who might claim to be an impact investors?

Cohen: I think you have to very strict on measurement. I don’t accept that anyone who creates impact is an impact investor. That’s investment with impact. An impact investor is somebody who has the intention of achieving objectives, set objectives in the social or environmental area, and measures their achievements alongside financial return. People will try to call themselves impact investors. Everyone will be an impact investor as some stage, just as in the tech bubble everybody jumped into it and hoped for a high valuation. We just have to be very strict about saying, ‘If it’s not measurable, it doesn’t qualify as impact investment. It’s investment with impact, good luck to you.’

This article by Dennis Price first appeared here.

The lackluster performance of major markets and the depressing outlook in the Eurozone and North America have made high net worth individuals (HNWIs) and their families rethink their investment strategies and priorities.

To counter the dip in traditional investment performance, those managing assets for HNWIs have looked to diversify their assets.  As a result, there is renewed investment interest and activity in the Eurozone and Asia Pacific.  New investment opportunities are also opening up in several countries in South America.

At the same time, the Eurozone is showing signs of recovery.  The monetary and fiscal reforms instituted by several sovereign states, plus the infusion of funds from European Central Bank, have started to pay off.

Recently, there has been an increased infusion of funds into real estate in the UK and other EU countries.  UK investment platform Cofunds reported that net inflows into the Investment Management Association haveincreased by more than 400 percent  in the past year.

A Forbes report by Panos Mourdoukoutas noted, “Eurozone Initial Public Offerings (IPOs) and credit marketsare coming back to life.  Last week, two Spanish REITs attracted strong investment interest, as they made their debut as publicly traded funds.”

The Asia-Pacific region has also drawn the attention of the world’s wealthiest. An Asia Asset Management report states that, “Asia-Pacific’s wealthiest investors are moving much more of their money into direct investment opportunities and away from capital markets as they see greater opportunities in other businesses and real estate rather than equity and bond markets. In this respect, family offices in the region are following trends in Europe, where concern over some financial products has led many of them to embrace direct investing in a more concerted manner in the last few years.”

There are many opportunities for direct investment in the Asia-Pacific Region outside of real estate.  It is home to more than 70 percent of the world’s population. Except for Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand,  the majority of countries in Asia are still underdeveloped, particularly in the infrastructure sector.

To meet the demands of their large populations,  the energy sector will likely  top these developing countries’ agenda over the next five to ten years, including exploration of alternative and renewable energy resources like solar, driven by rising fuel costs.

Another growth region is South America.  Like their counterparts in Asia, most countries in South America are also developing. While many investors avoided South American markets because of problems with political stability, recent reforms have made the region an interesting new landscape for foreign investors, with Brazil leading the pack.

Overseas Property Mall have listed Brazil, Chile, Nicaragua, Peru and  Uruguay among South American countries with strong investment potentials.

Also of interest is the fact that Brazil will host the Summer Olympics in 2016, generating a range of investment opportunities that are likely to cascade onto other neighboring countries mentioned in Overseas Property Mall’s list.

Many analysts on Wall Street are bearish on the future of traditional US market products.  But global wealth managers can see growing opportunities in the UK and South America that can help balance the downturn in other sectors.

Note: This article was  first published in the first issue of Family Offices Today.

This article appeared at thesoholoft.com on November  9, 2015.

This article originally appeared here.

Coworking is often considered to be a conduit to address various needs faced by communities, whether that be the lack of affordable infrastructure, community and support. For today’s freelancers, entrepreneurs and creative thinkers, coworking spaces have been a godsend, helping individuals to avoid isolation and find success in their professional lives. Yet, aside from the professional benefits, the coworking concept has been also been considered by some to be a valuable tool in addressing social issues.

Entrepreneurs, Vasili Sofiadellis and Paul Keursten, have realized the potential of utilizing coworking a social tool, and have recently announced their plans to open a coworking space that will cater to the needs of the countless individuals suffering from the current refugee crisis.

In October of 2015, they travelled together to Lesvos in Greece, an area of Europe that has witnessed one of the greatest concentration of refugees, the majority of them fleeing from Syria. We spoke with Vasili about their experience in Lesvos and how they plan to move forward with this inspiring space.

Hi, Vasili. Can you please tell us a bit about your (and Paul’s) experience with coworking and what led you ultimately travel to Lesvos?

I am a South African Greek National, based in Cape Town, and I have been visiting the birthplace of my parents, Lesvos, every year for the past 10 years. I have my own company, from which I plan to launch a socially oriented health tech accelerator.

Previously, I was running a PriceWaterhouseCoopers office within a local tech incubator and coworking space. In addition to my own projects, I am also a board member of the Silicon Cape Initiative, which is a not for profit entity focusing on supporting tech entrepreneurs. I am also a founding crew member of the StartupBoat, an initiative to find tech solutions for the refugee crisis. In 2015, We traveled to Greece twice with the goal of finding ways tosupport this crisis.

My colleague, Dr. Paul Keursten is an entrepreneur and consultant, who places innovation, entrepreneurship and learning at the core of his work. Paul focuses on supporting others to fully develop and utilize their talents in order to achieve success and contribute to a better world.

Together with Mark Seftel, Paul started OPEN, a collaborative workspace company that designs, builds and manages coworking and innovation spaces across South Africa. Paul’s work in OPEN builds on the experience he gained in Maliebaan45, launched in 2008, which was the first high-end, boutique coworking space in the Netherlands.

At the 2015 Coworking Europe conference in Milan, you and Paul presented your idea to create a coworking space that would cater to refugees. Can you please tell us a bit about the concept, and also about some of the ideas that you came up with at the unconference?

I work from Paul’s coworking space here in Cape Town, and upon returning from Greece, Paul and I discussed the refugee crisis. Paul was immediately keen to set up a coworking space in Lesvos through which we could create an enabling environment.

At the unconference, we presented our idea to several representatives of the coworking community who are very interested in supporting our project.

You cited that when you visited Lesvos you were inspired to start this project. What were some of the stories that you heard while visiting with refugees?

Firstly, what stood out was how amazing these people were. Not one of them wanted to leave their homes, which really brings home the point that they had no choice in the matter. Secondly, many of them were highly educated and had their own financial independence.

One man, an industrial engineer, shared his story with us, explaining that all he wanted was to be safe and to find his wife and daughter, whom he was forced to leave behind. He had moved twice while in Syria, but was ultimately forced to leave. We also met a man, and his three beautiful daughters, whose wife had stayed behind with the youngest child because he did not want to get onto a boat. All three of his daughters spoke English, and were studying at university.

What were some specific needs that you discovered while meeting with refugees in Lesvos?

The immediate needs were for wifi and electricity to charge their phones. They wanted to communicate with their loved ones. We notice that every refugee had a smartphone.

Secondly, the biggest need was for people to recognize the tough road and many challenges that the refugees faced. It is important to acknowledge their bravery for undertaking this journey into the deep unknown! When these people arrive, they are celebrating with tears of joy for arriving safely in Europe and also the prospect for a better future. Many have lost not only all of their belongings, but also family members and loved ones.

It was completely inspiring to see the sheer determination and optimism these individuals carry, as they have the attitude that the glass is always half full. After arriving on shore and celebrating, most refugees then walk for over 72 km to reach Mytilini. Many of them have no idea what awaits them or how they’re going to get there, but the one thing that they do know, is that they are going to get there no matter what (« there » being mostly Germany and Sweden).

You mentioned that many of the refugees were entrepreneurs, what did they say were their biggest obstacles?

My opinion of an entrepreneur is someone who perseveres in that which he believes in. This was not more evident than it was in the determination of these refugees. I have new-found respect for the Syrians of whom I was fortunate enough to meet.

I am certain, that given half a chance to run a business, or any other opportunity, these people will succeed with flying colors! It is imperative for Europe not only embrace these people, but to also create an enabling environment for these inspiring people to integrate into communities and provide them with the opportunities through which they can become self sustainable.

As coworking is based on a value system that is primarily inclusive, a shared and supportive space seems to be the perfect place to start such an initiative. But, as with everything, there are inevitable obstacles and there often has to be a long-term goal set in order to build a successful platform. What are some of the ideas you have that would help refugees to become self-sufficient?

These are very determined people. The ideal scenario would be for them to present their ideas to angel investors / VC’s who would fund some of their ideas in partnership with local entrepreneurs, such as joint solutions that could be co-founded. One example could be to fund a Syrian refugee to start a local restaurant.

In Lesvos, we will look at the possibility of holding a hackathon which will be attended by local Aegean University students, tech entrepreneurs, local NGOs, and, of course, refugees. The objective would be to create tech solutions for the NGO, in addition to other challenges with teams that would be inclusive.

What types of programs would you offer in order to support this community and have you had thought of making potential partnerships with other aid organizations, or even coworking spaces for that matter?

The overall idea is to raise funding for these solutions to be “incubated” within the coworking space for at least a three month period. We would also encourage a large corporation to set up an office in Lesvos that would ideally be focused on tech skills for an R&D centre and also to look to attract refugees that have these skills to Lesvos. We also plan to have a “quick” assessment of the various skills that refugees have, as an attempt to relocate them to areas where their skills are required. As we do this, we would also look to teach software skills to those that are interested, as these skills can be used irrespective of where you are.

We have had various discussions, and also met with one of the leading NGO organisations, thus we would most certainly look to collaborate with all stakeholders. The Mayor, Mr Galynos, has truly been exceptional and in general very supportive. His vision is to transform the island into a place where “Pain is turned into Hope”.

Would you make it a priority to help integrate the refugees into the greater community? If so, what would be some of the ways you would do so, and do you think this would be effective in order to achieve long-term success?

It is imperative to integrate the communities, and we believe that through jointly funding initiatives this would be a good way to achieve integration.

A bi-annual event where sports and cultural activities are celebrated would also be very important. It’s vital that people recognize that we are all global citizens, or at least we should strive towards this mind set. We should also look to celebrate, as soon as possible, success and feel good stories of integration between the different cultures and refugees.

Do you think that this initiative could help to change some of the negative perception people have of refugees, which often pushed by widespread divisive media coverage?

Absolutely, no doubt. In fact, we need to raise awareness in the media of who these people are and their brave journeys.

It is not possible for someone to understand this without actually speaking to the refugees. The minute you speak to the first refugee and hear their story, it’s simply not humanly possible to not be touched and inspired. It makes you want to make a difference and help in whatever way you can.

The minute I met the first refugee, it changed my life right then and there. It’s out of pure ignorance that I did not act sooner. This is a crisis. Every person needs to assist, and this crisis could be considered as a golden opportunity to transform Europe and the world. Our actions today will determine what our future will look like.

Lastly, I would also like to add that the people of Greece have been nothing short of exceptional. Whilst undergoing one of the most severe financial crisis in its history, with the highest suicide rates ever, the people of Greece have recognized that the needs of these unfortunate are greater than what their needs are and have been acting accordingly. It is simply amazing and they should and will be recognized for this. They have shown us what humanity is, and should be about.

An event is to take place in Lesvos later this year to share and launch the project. Details will be announced in WEF in Davos on the 20th of January 2016.

Amanda Gray 

This article originally appeared here.