Conviction
Socio-economic assessment is a method that helps guide investment decisions towards projects that are virtuous for society and the planet.
Generally used upstream of investments, it ensures that public or private funds are allocated where they will maximize the common good, i.e. where the economic, social and environmental impacts will be the greatest.
More than an issue, evaluation is therefore a necessity in a world of finite resources.
A recognized method
Socio-economic and environmental assessment is :
- Academically and internationally recognized
- Practiced by multilateral development banks to guide their investment decisions
- In France, mandatory for all public investments of the State of more than €20M
- Above €100M of government investment, a counter-expertise led by the SGPI is conducted to verify the consistency and robustness of the initial Socio-Economic Assessment
- Increasingly used by private actors
- A method framed by official recommendations
- By participating in numerous working groups, in particular with France Stratégie, Citizing participates in enriching this method and making it accessible, so that it can be used for an ever increasing number of sectors.
General principles
- Socio-economic assessment consists of determining whether a project is more costly for the community than it brings in, or on the contrary, whether it is more beneficial than it costs.
- It is therefore a balance between benefits (positive impacts) and costs (negative impacts):
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The impacts taken into account are:
- Of all natures: economic, social, health, environmental
- Immediate or long term, generally over a 30-year period. For example, projects that allow people to train have impacts on the entire working life of the people.
- For all stakeholders, whether they are positively or negatively affected by the project
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Socio-economic assessment has two specific features:
- Monetization**: in order to compare impacts of different kinds, they must be expressed in a common unit. Monetization aims to attribute a monetary value to non-market impacts, with a view to calculating a socio-economic-environmental Return on Investment (R.O.I.)
- These are evaluations in differential in relation to a situation without investment: comparing the data of the two situations (with and without investment) makes it possible to highlight the advantages of the situation that is more favorable to the common good over the long term
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This method makes it possible to calculate :
- A return on investment (ROI) that is at once economic, social and environmental. => An indicator that indicates, for 1€ of money invested, an amount in € of creation of collective value.
- A socio-economic and environmental Net Present Value (NPV)
- Impact amounts by nature or by type of stakeholder
For 1€ of money invested, an amount in € of collective value creation.
Benefits for project leaders
Socio-economic analyses allow to :
- Help in the decision to invest or not to invest
- Nourish advocacy
- Provide objective elements for consultation
- Search for innovative economic models
The socio-economic assessment method is applicable to all sectors. Citizing has worked on issues such as meteorology, smart cities, energy, access to water, mobility, justice, education and higher education, urban planning, social inclusion, public policies for the elderly, vulnerable groups, etc.