The Public Leadership & Social Impact Advisory Group
SDG Impact Collaboratory
Leveraging our global, multi-disciplinary advisory and project management experience, we work with government, philanthropic and impact investment partners to identify, co-design, propose and scale innovative cross-sector solutions to complex sustainable development (SDG) challenges.
We believe in the importance of evidence-driven inquiry, an open innovation approach, the search for circular economy solutions and drawing inspiration from nature through biomimicry. Our focus is on co-creating and scaling enduring interventions that can achieve systemic, long-term improvement in outcomes and shared value creation for public and private sector stakeholders working together. Our current social impact collaboration initiatives are:
Middle East & North Africa Centers for Disease Control
(MENA CDC) Initiative
The Covid-19 crisis has served as a powerful reminder of the fragility of public health systems across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.
Just as the SARS outbreak in 2003 accelerated plans in Europe for what has become the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) and the Ebola crisis in 2013-16 for what has become the African CDC, we believe this is now the time for the MENA region to come together to strengthen national public health capabilities through stronger regional and international collaboration.
Based on over a decade of strategic policy advisory and project implementation experience across the MENA region, Lyceum is working to build a sponsor group to champion the establishment of a ‘Middle East & North Africa Centers for Disease Prevention & Control’ (MENA CDC) to protect and advance the lives and livelihoods of the region’s 600 million people.
Beyond the public health and humanitarian benefits this initiative would deliver to the peoples of the MENA region, this is an issue of global strategic significance given the refugee flows from the region and the presence of some of the world's largest and most globally connected international airports and transport & logistics hubs.
The Koala Bond Initiative:
Building Back Australian Native Species Populations
The 2019-20 Australian bushfire season had a devastating impact on critical populations of Australian native species, many already endangered.
Immediate government funding responses understandably focused on the recovery needs of families and local communities. But with government finances now under unprecedented pressure due to the economic consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic, new sources of funding and approaches for biodiversity restoration are urgently needed.
We believe private capital can be leveraged to deliver innovative, scalable and outcome-based interventions for biodiversity restoration, including the rebuilding of native species populations.
In partnership with some of the world's leading social finance innovators, Lyceum has identified the potential use of an innovative impact financing approach to help rebuild the populations of critically endangered Australian native species and the habitats on which they depend. We call it a 'Koala Bond' but it would support the restoration of entire local ecosystems of flora and fauna.
This approach would leverage private finance to fund local implementation partners and, in so doing, drive innovation in conservation and 'green' job creation for local communities. It would also create an economic value for biodiversity thereby creating incentives for land owners to lead these efforts over the long term.
We are now seeking natural capital pioneers worldwide and government partners across Australia to join us in designing and launching a Koala Impact Bond.