Public Private Collaborations: Journeys in Scaling-up Social Innovation
Public Private Collaborations: Journeys in Scaling-up Social Innovation
Social innovations are activities, which develop and implement new ideas that meet social needs, enhance cross-sectoral collaboration and form new connections. To scale these up there is a need for agile, connected, and engaged public- and private actors that channel financial and non-financial resources towards positive social impact at the national and European level. During this session, we will discuss how the upcoming national- and European Social Innovation Competence Centres, innovative public-private collaborations and financial mechanisms, contribute to supporting social innovation and the transformation of government-systems towards a stronger multidisciplinary approach to policy-making.
Experts from the European Commission, Brabant regional authority and the European Investment Fund will engage the audience on a lively conversation about the role of governments and EU public institutions in boosting innovation and transformation in society.
Elodie Donjon
Elodie started her career at EIF in 2004, where she held various positions, such as fund administrator (specifically for EIF's Turkish and Portuguese funds-of-funds) and investment professional. For the past five years, she was working with EIF's Lower Mid-Market team, making growth and debt investments throughout Europe. She has been involved in the due diligence of more than 40 opportunities and also monitored a portfolio of funds spread across Europe.
Since early 2017, she joined EIF's Innovation and Technology investment team where she embraced the challenges of early stage investing. In particular, she has worked on several transactions focussing on the CEE region. Elodie holds a Bachelor in Marketing and Communications from the Montpellier Business School and a Corporate Finance Certificate from the Sacred Heart University.
Astrid Kaag
Astrid Kaag is senior policy advisor International Affairs for the regional government of Noord-Brabant (NL) on the topic of socio-economic transformation. This transformation is about all actions of stakeholders that contribute to the recovering of balance between people, planet, profit: varying from grass roots' initiatives to corporate businesses doing business for the greater good. Important change makers in this movement are social entrepreneurs. These entrepreneurs invest in contributing to societal issues; their business is not primarily aimed at making a (monetary) profit but about creating positive societal and ecological impact.
Astrid sees that government bodies have a responsibility in this transformation. Not only in stimulating and facilitating this movement, but also because government authorities can learn from it: social entrepreneurs show us that it is possible to find tangible and innovative solutions to our societal issues.
In this challenging process different stakeholders are needed, with various backgrounds and perspectives on different levels: local, regional, European and global. In order to achieve a sustainable learning attitude of all stakeholders in this process, Astrid uses her training and education as a certified system coach. Her special interest in (eco)systems is also reflected in her background as an ecologist.
One of the things Astrid did to take concrete action, is to initiate the Brabant Outcomes Fund (BOF): a public-private fund to scale enterprises that create positive impact on both people, planet and profit. The BOF is inspired by the methodology of social impact bonds and outcomes funds but slightly different, like financial savings are not the main goal and it focuses on the validation and stimulation of multiple (social, ecological and economic) value and both quantitative and qualitative impacts. Currently Astrid is working on the second investment-round of the BOF with a focus on circularity & sustainability, care & digitalization, nature & food and happy, healthy citizens.
Astrid uses her experience and skills to work on what she strongly believes in: the power of a global learning economy, so as to achieve equal opportunities for all, no matter where you live.
Risto Raivio
Risto Raivio is a senior expert in European Commission's Directorate General for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion. He works in the ESF coordination unit and is in charge of ESF measures promoting social innovation.
The past 5 years Mr. Raivio worked in the same DG on social entrepreneurship policy. He has also worked in the European Commission's DG Education and Culture, in the Committee of the Regions of the EU and at the University of Tampere in Finland.
Catalina Papari
Cătălina Papari joined our Policy department as a Policy and EU Partnerships Associate in April 2020. She was a trainee at the European Commission in DG Regio, starting to specialise in inter-institutional European relations and audit, mainly focusing on the simplification of the Cohesion Policy and ERDF.
Previously, she followed a MSc in Economic Policy at the faculty of Law, Governance and Economics from Utrecht University and a BSc in International Business and Economics from Bucharest University of Economic Studies. She was always passionate about institutional economics and the evolution of public-private dynamics regarding socio-economic policies. During her studies she conducted research on education policies, impact evaluation, and projects scale-up mainly in Central and Eastern European countries with the final goal of creating more policy evidence. In the long-run she strives to contribute with her knowledge to a more efficient global economy with better social outcomes and reduced poverty gaps.