Attempts to quantify the impact of social ventures and international development projects may be beneficial in the context of planning, managing risks and allocation of resources. However, the decision-makers of any project with social value must look at the wider implications based on experiential history before using vague metrics like social return on investment (SROI)[1]. Incremental improvements in technology enablers that enhance the human existence through health, education, housing or energy should be linked to how the rollout of innovations has tangibly affected societies. Thus, the eradication of an infectious disease or the reduction in illiteracy rate or the acceleration of rural electrification as a result of adaptive technologies is an indication of leveraging the past to reshape a future outcome. The intangible gain of well-being, for example, is just a by-product of the technology enabler. Any assigned numerical value represents an oversimplification of the complex.
In
the same vein, if crowdfunding is looked at as an
enabler[2] of a social venture, made
possible by the Internet of Things, the
desired outcome of reaching a fundraising goal is a bridge that once again connects
past to the future. The radical uptake of web platforms for electronic
transactions in the past fifteen years contrasts with the old-fashioned
fundraising that took several months or years and was limited by geography. For
instance, we might be unable to objectively measure the inherent “social value”
of crowdfunding but the innovation-driven outcome of quickly raising money for
disaster relief infrastructure or water purification systems for a rural
village may be a key intervention that could prevent the spread of a
potentially fatal pandemic.
Analyzing
this perspective further, when the Wright brothers made their first prototype
of the aircraft, they could not have envisioned an SROI for their technology. Today, after more than a century of air
travel, the numerous incremental social benefits for humanity of the aeroplane,
from intercontinental flights to space exploration, are universally known. At
the same time, it is actually still difficult to assign a ‘social impact value’
because of the intangible factor. The invention, design and subsequent
innovation of the airplane is a classic case of how centuries of long journeys
by sea and land coupled with the everyday observation of flying birds informed
the future of transportation.
Ultimately,
the extensive efforts by social ventures and non-profit organizations to assign
value and certifications through undefined numerical indicators pinpoint to
misplaced priorities. The evolution of impact investing
and the application of financial bonds to mitigate risks [3]
push to the fore seemingly rigorous quantitative methods that could gauge a
project’s impact, in the socioeconomic sense. Notwithstanding, historical
lessons from the global financial crises highlight the futility of the ‘numbers
obsession’ in social endeavours. Effectively, human populations are irrational
and unpredictable. In this regard, technology-enabled paradigms that advance
societal needs are crucibles for constant experimentation based on the
progression of changing times and not necessarily a questionable or unreliable metric.
Is the historical big idea a more
insightful measure of social impact?
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