SDG Impact Measurement

Check out this course on Impact Measurement and Management for the SDGs. The course is available on Coursera and is offered CASE at Duke University. The course's instructor is Catherine Clark. The is currently $49 USD, about 9 hours long, and provides you with a certificate at the end.

The UN is working on creating an “SDG-Seal” for funds (equity/debt, both private and public), and Duke was commissioned to create a course helping investors and enterprises get certified.

Here are two takeaways Ibrahim Rashid had about the course:

1. The #ImpactInvesting industry is trending towards requiring third-party validation. SDG Impact is in the process of building an SDG Seal of assurance (like a fair-trade seal) for all impact investments. The Duke course is the best way, if implemented, to prepare your fund (regardless of asset class) for UN Certification. 2. The real strength of this course is its ability to drive home the spirit of the different impact measurement and management frameworks on the market, and understand their limitations, use cases, and how to apply them coherently together. It's one thing to know about the #IMP5dimensions, and how to write a report that explains the "who what how much, etc.", it's another to understand how to embed that within your impact thesis, diligence process, and incorporate other frameworks (like the IRIS indicators, or the SASB/GRI materiality framework) within that analysis. Long story short - it helps us move away from seeing these frameworks as box-ticking or window dressing, and more towards a holistic and integrated theory of impact.