Why establish a Country Impact Group in France?

The topic of social impact measurement and analysis is still quite new for French social enterprises and their private or public funders. There are two needs: make the topic more accessible to all (communication, guidebooks, case studies, etc.) and support the creation of a new “market” of consultants/researchers with people that recognise that they do the same job and have to better define its principles.

“I’ve noticed several people who were interested in social impact analysis and took part to the same conferences, workshops and training. It’s a “kind of community” that I’ve been trying to gather and make work together.” - Emeline Stievenart, Independent Consultant

Who is leading the discussion?

SIAA Individual Member Emeline Stievenart has been leading the discussion in France to establish a Country Impact Group along with Organisational Member ESSEC Business School since Spring 2012. In October 2012 they collaborated with SIAA to host an event on the issue of “how to generalise social impact assessment in France?”.

ESSEC Business School hosted SIAA’s 2013 Annual Conference, Beyond Measurement. Emeline, with ESSEC, has already been involved in bringing together lots of different people around the topic of social impact measurement and analysis through workshops and development of the “Petit précis”, a short guide to social impact evaluation, with 20 contributors including Avise and Mouves.

Next steps

On 22^nd May 2014 there was a meeting of 14 people, including representatives from SIAA, Avise, Mouves, Admical, Agence nouvelle des solidarities actives (Ansa), KPMG and more. Many of the attendees were involved in developing the “Petit précis” and discussed how to further promote the guide. There was also a discussion about the different needs in France and potentially establishing a Country Impact Group. Watch this space for more information!