Building impact economies

Governments play a pivotal role in unlocking trillions in capital to tackle global social and environmental challenges. This report shows how policy innovation, sustainable finance frameworks, and stronger public–private collaboration can bridge financing gaps—especially in emerging markets—and scale impact economies. Featuring proven global examples, it guides policymakers, investors, and public actors to align capital flows with long-term societal goals.

This guide aims to demystify the process of designing and structuring impact vehicles. It provides practical, replicable guidance for organisations seeking to catalyse capital flows into local impact economies. Drawing on lessons from across the GSG Impact Partnership and wider impact investing ecosystem, it presents a structured six-step roadmap to support practitioners throughout the vehicle design process, complemented by a library of case studies sharing practical lessons and real-world structuring experience.

Sustainability management and reporting, understood as the processes by which companies identify, measure, monitor, and disclose their material environmental, social, and governance risks, opportunities, and impacts, has become increasingly essential to how businesses build competitiveness, resilience, and trust in today’s economy. At the same time, sustainability management and reporting are a critical foundation for system-level impact transparency, particularly when adopted consistently across value chains. Yet for most small and medium enterprises (SMEs)—especially in emerging markets and developing economies (EMDEs)—the business case remains unclear, and the pathway to implementation often feels out of reach. Limited resources, capacity and technical know-how, combined with emerging sustainability-related reporting requirements designed primarily for large corporations, make it difficult for SMEs to engage meaningfully.