Caroline Ashley

Caroline focuses on how innovative economic models can deliver more inclusive and resilient development.

Caroline has worked on markets, business models and investment approaches that deliver social impact for many years in roles with challenge funds, impact investors, entrepreneurs, corporates, NGOs and policy makers. As Results Director of the DFID Business Innovation Facility, and Sida Innovations Against Poverty programme, she founded the Practitioner Hub for Inclusive Business in 2010, then took on hosting it, and acted as Editor of the Hub for 7 years before it transitioned into InclusiveBusiness.net managed by IBAN.

Most recently Caroline led economic justice programmes at Oxfam GB, before moving to Forum for the Future, to lead global systems change programmes to accelerate our transition to a sustainable future.

BIF clients setting Key Performance Indicators for their social impact

Malawi
Sub-Saharan Africa
2. Aug 2012

Some companies supported by the Business Innovation Facility are creating or adapting their Key Performance Indicators, so as to better track their social impact.

A new post in the Results Network outlines why and how they are doing this, drawing on experience with Afri-Nut, Universal Industries, Jita, and others. In essence, there are at least four drivers behind this:

1. to track delivery of their combined commercial and social mission

2. to ensure operational efficiency and provide early warnings in the supply chain

3. to appeal to Impact Investors, and integrate the 'IRIS indicators' that they use

4. to modify targets that will affect staff performance and incentives, so as to avoid over emphasis on either commercial or social delivery.

They also face challenges, particularly when it comes to gathering data at farmer level.

To read more, and access related presentations plus an extract of IRIS indicators that are relevant to agribusiness, see the new post in the Impacts Network: Why and how companies set key performance indicators for social res...