How Ready are Impact Investors to Take on Inequality? What We’ve Learned so far from EIIP’s first training course

By EIIP Senior Associate Rana Zincir Celal

With the training materials from our very first EIIP training programme now available on our website, impact investors now have access to our full course content, covering both the theory and practice of equality impact investing.

The EIIP training programme is one of several resources we’ve been developing to build impact investors’ capacity in adopting a deeper and broader focus on equality in their funding strategies and portfolios. The field of equality impact investing (EII) was and is developing to respond to ways for impact investors to impact on substantive inequality as a structural issue pervading all the areas they’re trying to make a difference in.

We’ve been collating case studies, research, tools and opinion pieces and more on our EII Knowledge Hub that demonstrate various aspects of equality impact investing in practice – you’re welcome to add to this shared library. And in the next few weeks, we’ll be launching a digital guide to equality impact investing. These resources and our training programme are one way we’re helping to build the field of equality impact investing in response to the demand and need that emerged from our flagship report. It was very clear to us that impact investors are seeking greater support to build their knowledge, confidence and skills to pursue equality impact investing.

Source: EIIP training programme

One indication of this demand and need for EII know-how was the response to our call for applications for our training programme. This was our very first training, which was designed with an emphasis on action learning so as to foster a two-way learning process – an opportunity to create and not just take on ideas. With more than 100 registrations for the course, we were pleased to see how EII appeals to impact investors globally  

The diversity of the learning cohort has also been a major value to all participants, who work on different aspects of inequality, and use different strategies of the broader field of EII – from supporting diverse founders to funding transformative change. This in itself embodies a core EII theme on the intersectional nature of inequality. The issues that impact investors address, such as gender, race, education and housing to name just a few, are all interlinked and cannot be easily isolated from each other, and this requires us to tackle silos.

Another striking aspect of EIIP’s training programme has been the level of engagement among participants. Their questions and input so far indicate that impact investors are rethinking their role in tackling systemic inequalities with a more expanded focus on the tools and strategies they can adopt in doing so.

We’ve also found that investors are converging around certain themes – interrogating power and applying intersectional approaches within impact investing elicited a great deal of positive reaction from our trainees.  For some, this training was their first exposure to such concepts within the context of their work, enabling them to better grasp the systemic and multi-dimensional nature of inequality. Participants particularly appreciated the grounding in equality provided through human rights and equality frameworks (the EHRC Equality Measurement Framework is now widely known as the “inequality Rubik’s cube”) and learning of the innovative ways in which of EII principles and strategies are already being applied. Significantly, through the training, impact investors are grasping the importance of going beyond DEI measures, recognising these are but one of a suite of EII strategies that investors can use to advance equality.

Finally, we’re sensing a desire from participants to continue interacting with their peers, which is a strong signal of the emergence of a growing community. Given that EII is a new field within impact investing, the participants in our training - EII Pioneers – really are at the forefront of trialling and experimenting with new approaches. In doing so, being able to reflect on their experiences applying EII with a group of their peers will be crucial to their ongoing success. It’s been encouraging to hear from participants how useful the peer-buddying system has been, and that some pairs plan to continue interacting after the course ends. We’re hoping to extend the action learning process through ongoing EII-practitioner cohorts that can continue supporting and learning from each other.

We also hope to offer the foundational training regularly in the future because it’s clear that demand for EII will keep growing. To respond to this, we’re planning to develop a system that certifies peers in delivering EII training, because we know that many of you are well-placed to offer this training, and because we want to reach as many investors as possible. We’re also scoping courses that delve deeper into certain aspects of EII, such as impact management and measurement or legal dimensions such as deal documentation that addresses current power imbalances in concrete terms. We’re also able to provide bespoke trainings to organisations and teams. If any of these opportunities interest you, please get in touch with us.

While training sessions can certainly be a supportive intervention, we also realise that they can only go so far. One way forward would be to integrate EII-related content into existing training and professional development programmes for impact investors. This is something we’ll be exploring in a future stream of work. Alongside this, we will also to set out professional standards for EII – the competencies (knowledge, skills, abilities and other characteristics) that impact investors require to be effective in applying EII. We’re planning to work with the Impact Investing Institute and others to bring an EII-edge to III’s Learning Framework. This will bring greater clarity around the attributes we expect to see in investment practitioners. As with all our streams of work, this is also a collaborative, bottom-up effort and we encourage you to get involved if you’d like to contribute.

Since our final action learning session takes place at the end of May, we’ll have more to share in a few months once we’ve had a chance to step back and assess the results of the training programme. So far, all indications point to a really positive experience, and we’re confident the EII Pioneers will soon be showcasing how they’re putting EII into action.