Halfway on the Journey of Exploring Social Impact Bonds
'Are Social Impact Bonds (SIBs) going to be the new secret tool for providing adequate public services?' - asked eight European cities themselves 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 a rough one 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.
