Development of the Bangladesh Impact Investment Strategy & Action Plan (BIISAP)

The Opportunity

Over the last five to seven years, Bangladesh has been raising awareness and harnessing the growth of concepts, structures, and mechanisms, to lay the brickwork for impact investing to step into the next phase of growth. However, this increasing momentum around impact investing is slowed down by a lack of conducive policy tools, incentives, and supportive infrastructure. To address these challenges and transform the impact investing sector from nascency to maturity, the National Advisory Board (NAB) of Bangladesh, became a member of the Global Steering Group (GSG) for Impact Investment in October 2018. NAB recommended developing the BIISAP, to ensure a planned and effective scale-up of the impact investing ecosystem. Roots of Impact and LightCastle Partners were appointed as the consultants to provide strategic support and recommend implementation guidelines, compiled through stakeholder consultations.

Our Approach

In collaboration with Roots of Impact, LightCastle Partners conducted interviews, focus group discussions, and workshops with private and public stakeholders. Stakeholders from the demand, supply, intermediaries, and ecosystem builders shared their insights on the current state of impact investing in Bangladesh and the vital elements to scale up the impact sector. Background research and analysis were conducted to identify the best practices from the relevant emerging impact investment markets. These recommendations were extracted as they fit, while also being contextualized to suit the Bangladeshi ecosystem. Based on the data collection process, subsequent analysis, and stakeholder consultation process, we mapped out nine recommendations with implementation guidelines, to unlock the full potential of impact investing in Bangladesh.

The recommendations were in the following 5 categories:

1. Positioning & Identity
2. Collaboration & Inclusivity
3. Education & Training
4. Alternative Financing Instruments & Tools
5. Incentives & Policy Follow-through

All the ensuing recommendations were assigned priority ratings and defined as either high, moderate, or low priority; as per the weighting of insights and opinions expressed, by the stakeholders. Recommendations with high, moderate, and low priorities were placed under immediate-term, medium-term, and long-term timelines respectively. Finally, based on an analysis of alternative Monitoring & Evaluating (M&E) structures in the world, we recommended a mix of result-based M&E and logical framework approaches, to NAB, for the execution plans in the BIISAP.

The Future

The key focus of the BIISAP is to promote increased understanding and advocacy while providing more structured pathways of scaling up the impact investing ecosystem in Bangladesh. Our proposed recommendations sketch out clear implementation guidelines and highlight lead implementors and agencies, to escalate the impact sector. The BIISAP will serve as the skeleton to revolutionize Bangladesh’s impact story and define an ambitious and achievable vision, to build the ecosystem, by spotlighting objectives, priority interventions, roles, and responsibilities.