Results of our network: Handbook & Video in da house

‘Are Social Impact Bonds (SIBs) going to be the new secret tool for providing adequate public services?’ - asked eight European cities in May 2020. Then they set out together on a journey to explore how SIBs can contribute to more efficient public services. Their joint trip promised to be rough from the start, which became even so due to Covid-19. The pandemic meant that the face-to-face meetings, which provided the basis for knowledge transfer and experience sharing, could only occur somewhere far in the unknown future. But the difficulties also brought new opportunities: the masterclasses enabled experts with extensive practical experience to join the cities in their collaborative work through online meetings. As a result, Aarhus (Denmark), Baia Mare (Romania), Fundão (Portugal), Heerlen (the Netherlands), Kecskemét (Hungary), Pordenone (Italy), Võru (Estonia) and Zaragoza (Spain) now have a solid knowledge base in the field of social impact bonds.

These cities are ready to share the knowledge gained in the Handbook for Cities developing SIBs, open for the public interested in exploring the financial instrument of Social Impact Bond, designed to enable more efficient public service delivery with the help of private investments.

Would you like to get a sneak peek before diving into the Handbook? Watch the SIBdev URBACT project video, providing you with a 3-min sexy&smelly introduction to the project and its actors - shot at our cheerful Final Meeting in Heerlen between 17 and 19 May 2022. Stay tuned, an explicit version explaining the project and the cities' activities in more details is coming soon!

We enjoyed this journey greatly and are dedicated to continue the development of SIBs in our cities, we hope you will find the results insightful :)