Only 15% of Sustainable Development Goal targets with sufficient trend data are on track – even as companies increasingly disclose their social impacts. The challenge is no longer visibility alone, but turning recognition into measurable action and economic demand for outcomes.
Written by the World Economic Forum and the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship in collaboration with SK Group’s Center for Social Value Enhancement Studies (CSES) and Social Finance International (SFI), The Impact Economy: Turning Disclosure into Demand explores how impact can become economically actionable. Using healthcare as a testbed, it examines the “impact paradox” and the roles of social innovators, governments, corporations, investors, philanthropy and intermediaries. It identifies four pathways: regulatory, commercial, financial and collaborative demand.
Drawing on case studies and emerging models, the report demonstrates how measurable social outcomes can be connected to economic value and financed at scale. It calls for coordinated action to move impact beyond disclosure and the margins of corporate responsibility, making it an ordinary part of economic decision-making.