“Unity is Strength” Report announced:
EYDK’s 2022 action plan has been drawn up
The report titled “Unity is Strength” was prepared in line with the outputs of the Search Conference held on October 20, 2021 by the Impact Investment Advisory Board (EYDK) with the support of YASED and PwC.
EYDK Secretary General Onur İlhan stated in the report that in addition to the European Green Deal, women’s empowerment and the livelihood opportunities for refugees, green cities and participation finance also stand out as strategic themes.
Having been announced in an online event held on January 26, the report set forth the focus areas and themes of EYDK which is positioned as the national supreme board in impact investments that aim to provide financial returns by creating a positive, measurable social and environmental impact and reach the level of 2,3 trillion dollars on a global scale. Within the scope of these findings, the mission and duties of the EYDK working groups were conveyed.
At the online search conference organized by the Impact Investment Advisory Board (EYDK) with the support of YASED and PwC on October 20, thirty one leading speakers shared their views in four thematic sessions. As a result of the opinions, the roles of EYDK were confirmed as raising awareness and developing a common language, supporting the establishment of a national impact ecosystem, supporting and guiding policy dialogue and national goals, establishing strong partnerships with local and global business and knowledge networks, and ensuring the development of national impact measurement and management capacity.
Expected perspectives from EYDK
Additional perspectives that EYDK is expected to have in a way that will reinforce its existing perspectives of capacity building, awareness raising, establishing impact partnerships, supporting the national ecosystem and policy makers are stated to be as follows: assuming an active, central and guiding position in policy dialogue, supporting impact entrepreneurs and impact funds, and carrying out more comprehensive studies in the field of impact measurement and management for sustainable impact capital flow.
In addition to the existing European Green Deal, women’s empowerment and livelihood opportunities for refugees, EYDK was requested to take an active role in green cities and finance themes and develop collaborations and projects within the scope of Istanbul Financial Centre.
In the context of the demands, EYDK’s focus groups, job descriptions and 2022 action plan proposals were announced in the report. The focus groups are as follows: Impact Partnerships Focus Group, Sustainable Development and Policy Focus Group, Capacity Building Focus Group, Corporate Communication Focus Group.
The first meeting of the focus groups is in February.
EYDK Secretary General Onur İlhan: “The descriptions of main roles of EYDK in the search conference were finalized as raising awareness, strengthening the impact economy by supporting all stakeholders, supporting the creation of human resources, establishing local and global partnerships and actively managing policy dialogue. In addition to the European Green Deal, women’s empowerment and livelihood opportunities for refugees, green cities and participation finance also emerged as strategic themes. Our four focus groups, which will assume these roles and themes and produce results, will hold their first meeting in February.”
“The report will guide the development of impact investing”
YASED Secretary General Serkan Valandova stated: “As YASED, we follow our sustainability and ESG agenda through the work we carry out with all our valuable members and stakeholders within the scope of our Sustainable Development Platform. One of the most important goals of our platform is to increase impact investments in order to make faster and more concrete progress towards sustainable development goals. As the most important organization serving this purpose, we are aware of the critical importance of the mission undertaken by EYDK, and therefore, we aim to contribute to the healthy development of our country’s impact investing ecosystem and to the spread of impact investments by actively participating in the EYDK. We are confident that it will successfully guide our joint efforts to develop the We would like to point out.”
“The development of impact investments depends on the growth of the impact ecosystem”
Akif Koca, PwC Government and Public Services Advisory Leader, said: “Impact investing provides an important opportunity for private equity to bring innovative solutions to socioeconomic problems. As sustainable models that provide financial and social benefits together increase, the interest in this field grows with it. Further development of impact investments will depend on the growth of the impact ecosystem and the dissemination of successful models.”