5th International Annual Conference on Impact investments, Donations & Philanthropists for Peace and Sustainable Development - 7 December, 2020, United Nations

(Official organisation partners)

(Communication partners)

(Other continental or worldwide networks, please contact us)

Investment VS Donation

What is Truly the Best for Development ?

Crowd Lending / Crowd Supporting / Crowd Investing / Smart Finance / Appropriate Technologies

Several public or associative organizations that are active in the domain of CrowdFunding, Smart Finance and Appropriate Technologies, federated or organized, at the national level. The main national actors, the federations, and the specific operators, organized presently at the international level, and are called to meet annually at the end of the civil year, at the International Annual Conference on the CrowdFunding, Smart Finance and Appropriate Technologies, at United Nations, in Geneva.

This annual space of sharing results and pooling of skills, allow to the actors of the domain to exchange practices, solutions, ideas, needs.

Your Annual Exchanges Resource

In the following of the national and continental meetings that are organized in each country and continent by the local federation, this International Annual Conference at United Nations allow the actors to implement in consultation, or to inform mutually, of progress and actions they lead during the year, or that they have in project.

The participants at this Conference are:

• Local and regional actors of different countries
• Thematic Actors by disciplines of finance and of crowdfunding
• Regional or national federations
• Thematic Federations, by disciplines of finance and of crowdfunding
• Large Institutions of Finance, Sustainable Development and Economy
• Government departments (Economy, Industry, Finance ...) and international associations of Ministries
• Specialized Journalists (finance, economy, science, environment, education, sustainable development ...)
• UN agencies (UNDP, UNEP ...)

Subjects that are in the agenda of this year are:

• Standards and references of exchange on Participatory Finance practices between national and international organizations
• National and international Charts of Participatory Finance, examples, projects, ongoing discussions of shares
• Financing Solutions of the actions of Development and New Appropriate Technologies
• Access of citizen actors to the Development of Projects beyond their simple financial contributions
• Administrative Status / legislative / recognition / etc of actors of Smart Finance projects
• The Citizen Participatory Finance, beyond the digital interface
• Expected Features of web portals of Participatory Finance
• Services for Participatory Finance provided by FabLabs
• Dissemination and Exploitation of the results to the uninvolved Big Public
• Road map for the mutual opening of the data collected

Detailed Program

Exchanges between stakeholders of the meeting took place in a round table between speakers and debates with the audience of the Assembly.

Organiser : NGO Objectif Sciences International, Geneva

Chairman :

Co-Chairpersons :

Content 2020

Here the Programme of the 5 days of GENEVA FORUM of December 2020, where are described the days dedicated to the Conference on Finance and Science for Peace and Sustainable Development Goals.

Official Opening Session - Monday 9 December 10:00, 2020

Session organised by the Geneva Forum

• Keynotes
• Remarks on current situation
• Remarks about concepts of the International Annual Conference

• Charlotte Eloise STANCIOFF, Ekobureau, ESEB, Making Finance Holistic: an ecosystem for Smart financing for building renovation
• Malgorzata Kurak, IMD Research + Philanthropist, Academia, research on European philanthropy
• Dyens Jeremy, University of Lausanne, Créa, Suggesting another economy model
• Haenni Gregoire, Geneva Pension Fund, Institutional Investor
• Ferrari Olivier, ConinCo, Impact Fund, circular economy
• Angles Florience, CapCo, Research in philanthropy
• Fernandez-Leenknecht Trang, Regulation EU Action Plan + EU directives

Presentations currently proposed for 2020

Validated Presentations

Green GDP based on a micro-funded model ORAL PRESENTATION

Our paper creates the first Green GDP based on a micro-funded model. We develop a simple formula that subtracts from GDP the expected sum of future damages on production due to climate change, more precisely due to atmospheric carbon concentration. The adjustment value depends on how much people care for the future. Our work ahead is to do the same on companies’ valuations.

Mr Jeremy DYENS ; University of Lausanne, Switzerland

Planet Earth is a fixed-sum capital ORAL PRESENTATION

We have built a world running contrary to Nature for nearly 250 years, and now we can renovate it, rebuild it and continue an ethically committed construction, this time in symbiosis with our environment. That spells three times more opportunities that what has been done so far. In order to respond to the opportunities available to all humans, we must embark on an uncompromising transition to a sustainable economy. This movement requires responses to political, industrial, environmental and social challenges. To achieve this, such a shift requires changes in perception and mentality.(corriger si erreur d’anglais) ONE CREATION Cooperative is a company that offers an “instrument” dedicated to the investment community of all stakeholders in order to support the rapid development of environmental technologies through a multi-sector approach (listed and unlisted shares, early-stage and scale-up start-ups, green infrastructure and real estate). This "instrument" enables means of providing long term support for meeting the goals set by COP21, pre-serving associates’ capital and generating financial returns from a truly sustainable economy.

Olivier FERRARI, ConinCo, Switzerland

Sustainable finance in the digital age – Focus on impact investing in Switzerland ORAL PRESENTATION

The research began in 2018, a period marked for the banking industry by the development of two key topics: digitization and sustainable finance. During the past two years, it was impossible to open a financial newspaper without reading one or more articles on these two themes. The two subjects, always presented separately, seemed to experience their rapid evolution in parallel and to leave an indelible imprint on the banking industry around the world. Switzerland, a major financial center, is faced with the same problems with a differentiating element, the end of banking secrecy. The Swiss financial center must therefore reinvent itself and modify its business model, especially in Geneva, the center of private banking and asset management. The problematic of the thesis seeks to study the paradigm shift of the Swiss financial sector, and more particularly that of private bankers from the point of view of digitization and sustainable finance. Ignoring these two issues can end in death, while integrating them heralds a glorious future and perhaps the ambition to be the bank of tomorrow. But how is it possible to integrate these two very distinct approaches? Are there synergies and can one support the other?

Mrs Florence ANGLES, Capco, Switzerland

Making Finance Holistic: an ecosystem for Smart financing for building renovation ORAL PRESENTATION

Buildings are responsible for 40% of EU energy consumption and 36% of CO2 emissions. Because of new Green Deal measures, building renovation is required for these buildings because of their low energy efficiency as well as insufficient maintenance measures over the past decades. Renovation brings potentially large energy savings, making the arduous process actually profitable in the long-term. However, investment procurement remains difficult today because of the long refinancing periods, and lack of project pipeline despite the need because of unclear guidelines, diverse stakeholders and bureaucracy.
(https://fineergodom.eu/)

Mrs Charlotte Eloise STANCIOFF, Ekobureau, ESEB, Latvia, http://ekubirojs.lv/en/home-eseb/

Integrating Philanthropic models into Impact Investing for SDGs in Least Developed Countries (LDC’s) ORAL PRESENTATION

Taking an inventory of projects funded through philanthropic donations and impact investments in Least Developed Countries (LDC’s) across the world, one trend could be ascertained; projects with its roots from impact investment have a higher tendency to sustainability over a longer term than donation based projects in LDC communities. Although, not relegating the importance or relevance of philanthropists in actualizing the SDGs, a change in approach of philanthropic donations might be required going forward to ensure the long-term survival of projects built with donations, rather than as an impact investment.
On the one hand, donation-based projects particularly in communities of LDCs aim to make social impacts without any financial returns while on the other hand, impact investment while making the social and environmental impact, also has an expected financial return even if it is “below market rate”. Hence, impact investing in projects in achieving the SDG’s provides further capacity that encourages the benefactors (local communities) of the such projects to make productive and commercial use of it in order to payback, rather than see it as a “Gift”. The “Gift” mentality usually does a disservice to the long-term survival of such project due to the attitude of protecting and maintaining such social infrastructure. A typical example is a water project to provide clean drinking water in a community of typically farmers in a village in an LDC; a philanthropic donation would simply build a water infrastructure while an impact investor would go a step further by providing other irrigation facilities either for rent for them to make economic use, hence being able to payback the investment at affordable rate over time.
Coming from such society, I have a firsthand understanding of both scenarios and can imagine a redirection or integration of philanthropic models into impact investing to achieve the SDG’s particularly in LDCs.

Mr Akeem AMUSA ; CnergyFund, Germany, http://cnergyfund.com/

Navigating Family Philanthropy ORAL PRESENTATION

Despite the fact that there exists a long tradition in family philanthropy, the field is slowly transforming towards being more effective and impactful. How can you ensure that you have the impact you want? How do you involve your family and networks? How do you ensure your resources are well spent? How do you successfully navigate the world of giving? This session is for aspiring and established family philanthropists who are seeking out new ways to ensure that their giving is meaningful.

Mrs Malgorzata KURAK, IMD, Poland, https://www.imd.org/gfbc/family-business/

Rethinking the role of banks for Impact Investments and Sustainable Development ORAL PRESENTATION

Sustainable development is defined as being “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”, yet is the current short-term focused and liability-ridden financial system really sustainable? Until now, impact investments, donations and philanthropy have solely been focusing on the downstream side of investments, financing ethical and responsible projects. However, it is now time for a change. It is also time to begin monitoring and influencing what is happening upstream in the current banking and monetary system.

Consider the following. Since January 2020, the balance sheet of major central banks has increased by at least 42% with the creation of more than 7 trillion USD – a state of affairs that has exacerbated financial instability and disconnected the financial industry from the society.

This, even though history has repeatedly shown that all fiat currencies have been inflated almost to the point of becoming worthless. This, even though several studies highlight how inflation increases poverty and wealth inequalities.

At Voima, we aim to offer a fairer and more sustainable alternative with Voima Account, a gold-based bank account. Voima Account has been designed so that it combines the ease and flexibility of the digital user experience with the advantages of physical gold ownership.

Now, what if you could contribute to sustainable development and poverty alleviation not only through carefully selecting your investments but also through carefully selecting the money used to finance them?

Mr Robin KIPFER, Voima Gold, Finland, https://www.voimagold.com/