Our current activities
HBGI is growing rapidly. We are commencing design work for our first Outcomes Fund - Integrated Mental Health. In partnership with Anglo American, and our first service provider, Right to Care, we will be piloting a new project in South Africa which integrates mental health checks and care for new mothers within existing childhood immunization programs. This pilot utilizes performance-based contracting to maximize program performance. Success on this program will enable us to scale and grow across the region.
We aim to publish a Request for Proposals for programs to be financed by our other funds in progress - the HBGI Outcomes Fund for Sport & Mental Health (which is also in support of UNESCO's Fit for Life flagship sports program).
In relation to Technical Assistance, we have completed our first major report for the California government on the contracting and performance management of services targeting homelessness and mental health. Click here for more. We are also a preferred provider to the Global Fund for future Technical Assistance work.
HBGI is participating in the Connecting Climate Minds project aiming to address the co-relation between climate change and mental health in Latin America and the Caribbean region, bringing our unique insights to a thriving community of practice in climate change and mental health research.
We already support a refugee support Social Impact Bond in the UK, and youth employment Impact Bonds in South Africa and Palestine (with funding for the latter from The World Bank).
Impact bonds
F4J Development Impact Bond (DIB) in Gaza and the West Bank
This DIB is funded by the World Bank through the Palestinian Authority. Its objective is to connect unemployed youth in Palestine with sustained employment, at the same time working closely with employers to address their labour gaps. The DIB was established in response to the consistent underperformance of historic skills training, which failed to deliver actual job outcomes.
Start-up funding and working capital for the DIB has come from four investors: Palestine Investment Fund (PIF), European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), FMO (the Dutch Entrepreneurial Development Bank), and Semilla de Olivo (a Chilean-Palestinian Diaspora Investment Fund).
The value of the DIB is $6.25m. It has exceeded all its outcome targets, despite starting just as COVID hit, and is now set to be recontracted for a further $6m of outcomes with another three years of delivery.
Two Social Impact Bonds (SIBs), NE RISE (North East Refugee Integration Support and Employment) and PRO (Plymouth Refugee Opportunities)
These SIBs are funded by the UK government and contracted by the Home Office. Their objective is to support asylum seekers who have just been given refugee status, who may have arrived in the UK some months or years before, to move from temporary to permanent accommodation, to access essential services and to participate in training or secure employment.
Both SIBs are backed with capital and ongoing governance by the social investor Bridges Outcomes Partnerships.
Our CEO, Richard Johnson, has also been advising on and will become the Chair of a new Social Impact Bond in South Africa, targeting youth unemployment.
Our priorities
Our current areas of focus (all with a focus on mental health) include:
Homelessness
Maternal Health & Immunization
Helplines
Climate change and its impact on mental wellbeing
Youth & Mental Health
Specific regional responses
Our next areas of focus will be:
Veterans (in the USA and in post-conflict countries)
Frontline staff in health and emergency services
Prisons and ex-prisoners