current model of social structure in the world in general and in our country in particular does not provide for or accept the existence of such a phenomenon as social investment and social investors. It is rather an exception to the rule. The very notion of "social investment" means people acting from surplus rather than deficit; it means the society has confidently reached the level of carrying out independent economic activity; it means the realization that every activity has its social impact in one way or another. And we need to make sure that this impact is positive and constructive, which in turn means that people are ready to take responsibility for society into their own hands. The existence of a large number of people in the society who have crossed this path on their own, allows us to raise the question of the transition to the economy of positive social impact. But this can only work fully if all of the society, that is, the majority of people in the society, have realized these things or at least share an understanding of them. This is a very high development level. Until we as a society have realized this, we can talk about individual examples of social impact projects or about creating a niche in the market that will include various positive social impact projects and enterprises. We need to make this niche a trendsetter in the market of independent economic activity. The world is now experiencing a tectonic shift of global transformation, as President Putin says. Russia has its own role in this process — the role of a crossroads, which should unite the world, first preventing it from self-destruction, acting as an exemplary country — a design of positive, constructive social impact, if you will, then spreading this model to the whole world. We’ll be working on this", Alexey Ryzhkov says.

The SIB model is a long game, which should have its own logic of change and monitoring of intermediate results.

IMPROVING EFFICIENCY

The mechanism of social impact bonds initiated by VEB.RF was included in the Concept for Improving the Efficiency of Budget Expenditures in 2019–2024. Resources, including financial resources spent on social problems, must improve the quality of life of citizens.

According to Tatyana Burmistrova, there is a growing consensus in the society that the focus of paying for public services should shift from ensuring the fulfillment of formal quantitative results to achieving social effects.

Right now, most social services are provided by the state with little regard for how effective these programs and services are in achieving positive outcomes for the demographics served. Existing contracts with state or private providers of social services are paid based on a measurement of quantitative results achieved. The SIB model is in fact the key to effectiveness, as long as the social effect is not replaced by quantitative results. For example, the number of social contracts concluded (the expected result of one of the social impact projects in the Russian Federation) cannot in itself be a metric of the fact that signatories will get out of a difficult life situation by spending money to start their own business or learn a new profession.

"These kinds of errors occur as early as the design level of the project, and can only be avoided through a more thorough, sometimes longer design phase, involving all stakeholders, including beneficiaries. The design should be preceded by the data collection stage, the involvement of professionals in the field of evaluation and theory of change at the stage of project development", says Tatiana Burmistrova.

THE THEORY OF CHANGE APPROACH

The SIB model inevitably involves building a theory of change for the projects launched. Otherwise, it simply will not work or will be ineffective.

"That’s the key difference between social impact projects, that the model provides for a transparent measurement of social results and an evaluation system", Burmistrova says.

Many governments spend major resources each year on anti-crisis population support measures, which mainly involves direct social payments. Such measures help a large number of people, but achieve little progress in solving social problems.

In Russia, too, the greatest share of government spending is used to make social payments to the population, rather than to implement specific projects in order to address the underlying causes of systemic problems to improve the lives of citizens. The SIB model is not designed to provide targeted social assistance to people; it is focused on changes whereby targeted social assistance will no longer be needed. Alternatively, the SIB model can pilot the introduction of more effective innovative practices, leading to significant improvements in people’s lives. Once successfully piloted, i.e. proven effective, practices can be incorporated into the state aid system.

In any case, according to experts, the SIB model is a long game, which should have its own logic of change and monitoring of intermediate short- and medium-term results leading towards the final goal — reducing/changing the status quo of the problem.

Впереди «Большая перемена»: векторы развития нового движения детей и молодежи

Юлия Вяткина

DOI 10.55140/2782-5817-2022-2-2-24-28

В день столетия пионерии, 19 мая 2022 г. в Госдуму был внесен законопроект о российском движении детей и молодежи «Большая перемена». По мнению авторов инициативы, принятие законопроекта позволит выстроить единую политику воспитания детей и молодежи, повысить их общественную вовлеченность, выстроить непрерывную траекторию их развития на основе ценностей российского общества. Редакция журнала решила узнать у экспертов, как выстраивать работу нового движения и что необходимо учесть, чтобы в стране появились агенты и носители позитивных изменений и лидерства.

Юлия Вяткина

Редактор журнала «Позитивные изменения»

СКАУТЫ, ПИОНЕРЫ И 20 МЛН ДЕТЕЙ

По экспертным оценкам, в настоящее время в деятельность детских общественных организаций и движений вовлечено около пяти процентов детей. Стоит отметить, что движение детей и молодежи существовало еще до революции. Пионерская организация — это не первая детская организация, которая возникла в России. Первый следопытский