1 September 2023
Alignment to the National Development Plan and the United Nations’ SDGs is critical to the ASISA Foundation’s success. Here’s how we ensure that our contributions are more than just a tick-box exercise.
At the ASISA Foundation’s event to launch its campaign celebrating 10 years of infinite impact, held in early August, the question was raised around the delicate balance between driving social development and boosting business’s bottom line. Nozizwe Vundla, who heads up Sanlam Foundation (one of the Foundation’s most generous funders), offered an interesting response.
“There will always be that clash between development imperatives and the profit motive, but I think the more enlightened businesses are realising that the two are inextricably linked,” she said.
This goes to the heart of the ASISA Foundation’s purpose. The Foundation aims to facilitate enhanced financial capability, economic participation, financial resilience, financial inclusion and financial well-being of poor, vulnerable and previously disadvantaged individuals through quality financial education, through collaborations and partnerships which pool resources, particularly those of the financial service sector, in the interest of fostering the future of the South African society and the financial service sector.
In that sentence alone lie South Africa’s National Development Plan (NDP) and three of the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), namely Reduced Inequalities (SDG10), Quality Education (SDG4) and Partnerships for the Goals (SDG17) – all of which are core to the ASISA Foundation’s work.
The Foundation also measurably contributes to four SDGs through specific programmes: No Poverty (SDG1), Gender Equality (SDG5), Decent Work and Economic Growth (SDG8) and Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure (SDG9). Two further SDGs – Zero Hunger (SDG2) and Climate Action (SDG13) are achieved indirectly.
But while alignment to and contribution towards the NDP and those SDGs is important, there is a growing understanding across industries that development cannot merely be a tick-box exercise. Real transformation is required to achieve the social return on investment that Vundla alluded to. This theory of change shapes the ASISA Foundation’s strategy and operating model, speaking directly to its founding principles and its ongoing Vision and Mission.
“The establishment of the ASISA Foundation was part of ASISA's strategy to achieve transformation of society, and also of the financial services sector,” says ASISA Foundation CEO Ruth Benjamin-Swales. “We strive to align to national priorities. We have the broad National Development Plan, which focuses on partnerships and on the growth of our country. When we select where to reach beneficiaries we are guided by the Financial Services Code, but we also consider how to position our programmes so that they are relevant. We work very closely with National Treasury and the National Consumer Financial Education Committee so that our strategies are aligned to national priorities.”
The result is focused impact that enables the ASISA Foundation’s funders to contribute towards meaningful societal change.
