On 21-22 March, IDO Impact 2017 was held at Tumo Center for Creative Technologies in Yerevan, Armenia. “How can we finance the next 15 years of development work? In what ways should true innovators be engaged in the development process? How viable is impact investment for business and governments alike?” – these were only a few of the many questions discussed at the very first global summit on impact investment for development. The summit has been hosted by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Armenia and INSEAD’s Social Impact Initiative as a knowledge partner. Together they have brought together some of the world’s leading social entrepreneurs, impact investors and development practitioners.

Hand4help attended this two-day event with UNDP officials, social entrepreneurs, impact business leaders, representatives of the government and academia. We held interactive thematic discussions exploring the potential of leveraging impact investment, social enterprise, and impact business to achieve the universally adopted Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030 and pushing global development to a new qualitative level.

We, Summit participants explored cases from Lebanon, Armenia and Georgia and tried to find out what are the main challenges in a variety of sectors: from rural development, agriculture, poverty eradication and access to quality education to FinTech and sustainable socio-economic development.

IDO Impact was a great opportunity for us to make more contacts and introduce our company to business leaders, investors and other participants. There were a lot of interested people with us. It was good experience in communication and working with other team on global topics.