By MediaGlobal News Service
UNITED NATIONS 12 December 2008: The United Nations Development Programme Special Unit for South-South Cooperation (UNDP SU/SSC) recently announced the creation of the South-South Human Development Stock Exchange (SS-HDSX), which will act as an online marketplace for cooperation projects.
The “social stock exchange” concept was launched by the São Paulo Stock Exchange in 2003 as a place where social investors could go online to find information about different projects in need of funding. In a world with so many different organizations and projects in need of funding, such a mechanism would be a vital tool to help screen civil society organizations before allowing them to post their projects, and provide accountability and transparency for interested social investors. Since it opened, the São Paulo social stock exchange has received more than $5.5 million online pledges to 71 philanthropic organizations and is now expanding to environmental projects.
Social Stock Exchanges are now a trend and similar initiatives are being launched in many countries such as South Africa, which opened a social stock exchange in 2006, England and Germany, which are planning to launch theirs in the next year, and India, New Zealand, Portugal, Thailand and Brazil, which have projects in the works.
The Special Unit has been looking closely to this trend for quite some time and based on southern successful experiences is launching its own marketplace where civil society organizations (CSOs) from developing countries can list their cooperation initiatives, and if accepted, can be supported by social investors.
To be approved, the projects will need to comply with all application requirements, present initiatives aiming to advance human development and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) through cooperation between at least two countries of the global South, be peer-reviewed, and enhance human development in a cost effective way. A key goal in the creation of a social stock exchange for South-South development projects is to support the achievement of the MDGs.
The project manager, Francisco Simplicio, told MediaGlobal that the UNDP SU/SSC’s strategy is to run the SS-HDSX as well as “promote the advancement of Human Development Stock Exchanges concept, the knowledge-sharing among Southern countries, and its the replication in developing countries.”
The SS-HDSX is important for the CSOs which will be allowed to post their projects. It will give CSOs greater visibility and access to more potential donors at lower costs, provide support for project management, monitoring and reporting, and generally encourage knowledge-sharing. The SS-HDSX is also important for the social investors because it will make such projects available through a reliable and accountable environment.
With numerous cooperation efforts worldwide, it is often difficult for CSO initiatives to gain recognition, and it is also incredibly hard for social investors to judge whether a project is worth investing in and if it will have an impact on development. The new stock exchange will be important for enhancing future cooperation by giving smaller projects the ability to be seen by donors, as well as ensuring donors that their investments will be going to reviewed projects that are expected to make a difference and move countries closer toward reaching the MDGs.
At first, the SS-HDSX will be launched as a pilot, meaning that it will start with a limited listing of projects while allowing for more specific feedback from CSOs and investors. After that, a larger-scale listing will be launched. The new social stock exchange will be presented and discussed at the Human Development Stock Exchange Forum on 16 December at the United Nations.
