But in a 2015 UNDP report, entitled Impact Investing in Africa: Trends, Challenges and Constraints, the authors noted that delivering on the SDGs for Africa will likely require from US$342–355 billion annually. Given the domestic resources available, that suggested a funding gap of approximately US$130–160 billion. The harsh reality was that foreign direct investment options were also unlikely to fill that gap.
We believe, though, that there are other more impactful options that are closer at hand and easier to adapt to address the SDG aspirations for Africans. As we pointed out in Issue 1, we believe that the employer, particularly global multinationals, can play an instrumental role as a catalyst for change that benefits the host country, the employee and, of course, the employer. But this means that we need to move beyond simply seeing employee benefits as focusing first and foremost on retirement savings and income protection.
One way to tackle the challenge is to go back to basics. Here we are referring to Maslow’s hierarchy of human needs. What was notable about Maslow’s work is that needs need to be addressed in a linear fashion – or even that ‘self-actualisation’ represents the ultimate achievement of humanity. Rather, its gift to our framework of thinking is that it introduced the concept of humanistic psychology – the fact that achieving our fullest potential, either as an individual, a corporate, or a country, depended on a societal underpin.
The more we can do to design a benefits framework that creates the broadest possible underpin to individuals and their families, the greater our potential for creating a stable corporate and country.