French Impact is the coordinator of a consortium working on social impact measurement for the Social and Solidarity Economy (SSE). The consortium involves 20 to 30 leading social entrepreneurs, investors, experts and governments representatives from the countries concerned by the project (United States of America, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, and India and other five European countries: France, Spain, Italy, Germany and Belgium) in the Peer-learning experience on social impact measurement.Social impact measurement is a common stake worldwide since there is a wide range of methodologies, none of which is fully approved by all stakeholders. The question we address through this PLP is how to use SDGs to advance social impact measurement with the following challenges: governments and investors who need harmonization and clear indicators, and social entrepreneurs and innovators whose projects by definition don’t fit in the boxes. We are aiming to the emergence of standard and recognized indicators and metrics used to help SSE investors.
The project addresses four key subjects:
1- How to align the needs of investors for impact measurement with the SDGs, and how can these needs be aligned with those of SSE actors?
2- The harmonization of data requirements for SSE actors.
3- The role of umbrella organizations in this process: how to harmonize investor’s practices? How to encourage investors to consider their own impact, beyond their investees’ impact? How to create a volume effect on data collection? How to prevent “SDG washing”?
4- Aligning the finance with the SDGs and the Paris Agreement. How to encourage the development of social impact measurements and identify recommendations for standards, tools and regulations?

PPMI, Politecnico di Milano