These recommendations have the potential to mobilise €500M to the ecosystem by 2030, tripling the current market size. By promoting innovative solutions to social challenges, Agenda for impact 2030 aims to keep Portugal at the forefront of impact investment and to make it the European hub for social innovation.
The Agenda for impact 2030 (API30) is a national strategy developed to strengthen the social innovation and impact investing ecosystem in Portugal started in 2014. This work follows the thriving European agenda on social innovation3 and builds on the pioneering work of the Portuguese Social Investment Taskforce, which promoted social innovation and impact investment at the national level. The taskforce published two reports: the first one, in 2015, setting 5 recommendations for the growth of the ecosystem, and the second one, three years later, monitoring the progress made by then. Through the work developed Portugal became the first country to mobilize EU funds to test social innovation financing instruments, currently ranking 2nd in Europe and 3rd worldwide in number of social impact bonds contracted.
The API30 results from the joint effort of 40+ representatives of influential institutions from public, private and social sectors. Together they constitute the Steering Committee for the National Competences Centre for Social Innovation, created in 2021 and led by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation. Driven by the belief that social innovation is key to positive social impact, the group worked for a year to redefine the priorities for the social innovation ecosystem in Portugal for 2030. maze actively managed the group’s work dynamics, systematised members’ contributions, and drafted the API30.
Portugal has led by example a first wave of promoting favourable public policy initiatives that mobilised public and private capital for impact investment experimentation in the country. Now it is time to scale what has worked well, learn and adjust from drawbacks and continue experimenting with new instruments. Those are exactly the three fronts in which the 2030 Impact Agenda for Portugal focuses on, with actionable recommendations that guide all market players in the country.
António Miguel, Managing Partner at maze
This agenda targets the main players of the Portuguese ecosystem — the market champion (Portugal Social Innovation), promoters of social innovation initiatives, public entities, and impact investors — and sets the following five objectives:
Strengthen Portugal Social Innovation as the reference entity for social innovation by creating a National Competences Center for Social Innovation:
Recommendation ex: simplify the reimbursement requests and overall process;