Impact-Investing in The Healthcare in Terms of the New Socially Responsible State Investment Policy

Abstract

The article reveals the issue regarding the implementation of impact-investing in the health care system and its comparison with other traditional investment mechanisms. The relevance of the study is to show the destructive impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on investment processes. According to the WHO and the UN, the global pandemic, unpreparedness of the Ukrainian health care system, and the lack of progress in achieving the Sustainable Development Goal 3 calls into question the conclusions of the Voluntary National Review “Sustainable Development Goals Ukraine 2020”. The investment instruments against COVID-19 in 2020 are conceptualized. The private companies’ assistance in this fight is studied. The study defines that most assistance is charitable rather than investing. Given the systematic and integrated practices of socially responsible business support for the health sector in SER companies’ strategy or the implementation of public-private partnerships in this area, such support could be transformed into mutually beneficial investment projects and after overcoming the pandemic impact. The authors prove that impact-investing is a useful tool for building and restoring the economy through a new socially responsible state investment policy. The current state of public investment project implementation in the health care field is assessed. According to the results, it is necessary to improve transparency, investment monitoring of projects and executive discipline in their implementation. Lack of generally accepted standards of transparency, measurement and impact management, along with an unformed system of benchmarks minimizing reputational risks and reducing transaction costs in the market of impact-investing and responsible investment in general (considering data from surveys of the Global Network on impact-investing) are fundamental limitations which hinder its development, in particular in Ukraine. Recommendations are given to develop the impact-investing in the context of new public investment policy to overcome these limitations, regarding the best practices in promoting the impact-investing policy. Keywords: Impact-investing, Investment Policy, Investors, Sustainable Development Goals, Social Responsibility, State Investment Policy.