Better Returns in a Better World

Abstract

The 2008 financial crisis raised a series of fundamental questions about the role of investors in society, both in terms of the investments they make, and the manner in which they use their influence to ensure that the positive poverty reduction and development impacts of their activities are maximized and the negative impacts minimized.

Oxfam launched the Better Returns in a Better World project (BRBW) in November 2008 with the aims of analysing the role that institutional investors can play (and have played) in addressing poverty reduction and development issues, encouraging investors to take account of these issues in their investment practices and processes, and identifying the barriers to long-term investment that supports sustainable and equitable development in developing countries. This report summarizes the lessons learned during the course of the BRBW project, and makes a series of recommendations to the investment community, policy makers and more broadly to civil society.

Keywords: Investment, poverty, sustainable development