VEB.RF, Yakutiya, Far East Development Fund (FEDF) and Higher School of Economics (HSE) Launch First Russian Social Impact Project
VEB.RF, Far East Development Fund, Higher School of Economics and the government of the Sakha (Yakutia) Republic signed a set of agreements on a pilot education social impact project during the Saint Petersburg Economic Forum.
Social impact projects are a Russian analogue of social impact bonds (SIB), a well know international financial instrument. A particular feature of this instrument is engagement of private investors and private entities to address social tasks. The government steps in to acquire only successful projects with significant social impact. Therefore social impact projects bring together private initiatives, private investment, focus on specific impact, new technologies to meet social tasks.
The project in Yakutia will become the first Russian pilot social impact project. The agreements were signed by: VEB.RF’s Deputy Chairperson Svetlana Yachevskaya, the Far East and Baikal Region Development Fund’s CEO Alexey Chekunkov, Head of Institute of Education of Higher School of Economics Isak Frumin, the Government of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutiya) Chairman Vladimir Solodov. The signing ceremony was attended by VEB.RF’s Chairman Igor Shuvalov and the Head of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutiya) Aisen Nikolayev.
The pilot project in the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) will take place from 2019 to 2022 to improve pupils’ educational performance. The project is aimed at improvement of general education’s quality, human capital competitiveness development, transformation of general education management and administration mechanism. All the aims combined will guarantee a controlled education quality improvement in the region. Around 5 thousand pupils from 28 schools (including 8 underfilled and 3 small-scale schools) of Khangalassky Municipal District will take part in the project. Target project’s impact is measured via schools’ educational performance index calculated as a weighted sum of the State Final Examinations’ (Basic State Examination and Unified State Examination) and academic competitions’ results.
“The social impact project in the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) will become the first SIB project in Russia. We are expecting active regional engagement in these projects. We believe that at least 10 social impact projects in different areas may be launched by 2024 with a total private investment in the amount up to RUB2billion,” Svetlana Yachevskaya emphasized.
Social impact project’s tools may give birth to new project scaling approaches and methods to involve public or municipal services. “In social impact projects not only the service itself matters, but also tangible changes and social effects,” Svetlana Yachevskaya said.
“We see a significant development potential in the Republic’s general education system. The Republic has a goal to get into top fifteen Russian Federation constituent entities with the best quality of education as per the Executive Order of the Head of the Republic “On Strategic Goals for Education Development in the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia)”. We are launching this project together with VEB.RF, FEDF and HSE, and it should help us create the tools to reach our goal,” Vladimir Solodov said.
National Research University Higher School of Economics was selected for implementation of the project. During three years HSE leading experts will provide additional training (including remote training) to pupils, assist in preparation of pupils’ personal development plans, train project managers and teachers, create professional communities, partnerships between schools, educational networks, act as mentors for teachers and principals, engage pupils’ parents, local community and businesses.
“The Far East and Baikal Region Development Fund is investing into this project. This project is important to us, as if it bears fruit, the project’s approaches and methods may be implemented on the whole territory of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) and other constituent entities of the Far East,” Alexey Chekunkov said.
The Ministry of Finance prepared a draft Resolution of the Government of the Russian Federation with guidelines for the constituent entities on pilot test social impact projects implementation in 2019-2024 to promote the development of financial instruments for the social impact projects.
First SIB projects appeared in 2010. The world’s first SIB project was brought about by Great Britain to reduce reoffending. Today the world counts 134 SIB projects in different areas with the lion share of social and employment projects. The total investment amounts to more than USD370million. SIB projects are implemented by Great Britain, USA, Germany, Australia, Canada, the Netherlands, and Columbia etc.
State Development Corporation “VEB.RF” and RefSoyuz LLC entered into an agreement of intent to cooperate on the project to develop a perishable cargo transportation system. The Agreement was signed at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum.
The document specifies the establishment of partnership relations and the possibilities to finance a project on creating a system of reliable transportation of perishable cargo by rail, with track gauge corresponding to the Russian standards.
Developing the system of safe transportation of perishable cargo involves improving the foodstuff transportation railway services, increasing the efficiency and transparency of business processes, renewing and modernising the current logistics infrastructure, and introducing innovations into the rolling stock management system.
RefSoyuz’s Deputy Executive Director for Economy and Finance Dina Shmuley said: “Providing the consumers with quality and affordable food is a strategic goal for business and society. We are delighted that VEB.RF as a development institution has expressed its willingness to scrutinise our project. We expect that the overall project investment will exceed fifteen billion roubles.”
“The project will become an important link in the Russian agrilogistics ecosystem and will facilitate the achievement of goals of the project for International Cooperation and Exports related to the growth of food exports up to 45 billion US dollars. We appreciate the cooperation with one of Russia’s logistics leaders and a major railway operator of refrigerated railroad cars,” VEB.RF’s Senior Vice President Anton Perin said.