FAQs

Within the scope of Portugal Social Innovation, social innovation occurs when the process of experimentation or implementation of an Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship Initiative generates a positive social impact, i.e. when it leads to an improvement in the quality of life or development prospects of one or more social groups.

Social Innovation aims to solve social problems and promote sustainable social change. This change can have a wide-ranging impact on society as a whole, or it can focus on a specific social group. In any case, it presupposes the transformation of conditions, ways of life or perspectives, with the potential for universal reach.

A Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship Initiative is an innovative product, service or methodology for responding to one or more social problems:

• Disruptive innovation – refers to a type of innovation that creates new solutions or transforms existing ones in a very marked way, with the aim of replacing them.
• Incremental innovation – involves gradual and continuous improvements to existing solutions. These improvements do not radically alter them, but increase their efficiency. 

A social problem broadly refers to an actual or potential inhibition of the quality of life or development prospects of a segment of the population or a current or future social group, putting into question human dignity, social well-being, equality, cohesion and social justice.

Social problems are complex and multidimensional, they have different causes and different effects. For this reason, the approach itself must also be multidimensional, including economic, social, cultural, environmental and other factors.

Examples of social problems include situations of poverty and social exclusion, abandoned or neglected children and elderly people, school dropout and absenteeism, social isolation, domestic violence, among others.

No. On the contrary, promoting social innovation and entrepreneurship complements existing public policy measures, which can be developed by the state, local authorities and the social economy. Not only does it promote the collaboration of public and private actors in solving social problems, but it also serves as an engine for innovation in areas of public policy, allowing them to improve their efficiency and effectiveness. This will make it possible, in particular, to generate more resources for application in social policies and to do so with higher impact.

Social Impact Bonds (SIBs) are an innovative mechanism for promoting and financing experimentation with new approaches to public service provision geared towards achieving social results and efficiency gains in areas that are traditionally the preserve of public policy (such as Social Protection, Education, Health, Employment and Justice).

SIBs presuppose the contractualization of certain measurable social results, in which payment to investors depends on the prior achievement of these results.

Prior to the implementation of the project, an indicator is defined corresponding to the positive, measurable impact that is intended to be generated on the project’s beneficiaries. The monetary value of the intervention is also determined, per capita, based on the budget presented in the application. The social investor finances the project and will be reimbursed for each person positively impacted, based on the amount previously determined.

In Portugal, SIBs are one of the five funding instruments created under the Portugal Social Innovation public initiative, the main features of which can be found here.

In the context of a Social Impact Bond, under the public initiative Portugal Social Innovation, a Social Outcome corresponds to the improvement of a certain circumstance in the lives of a group of recipients, which allows them to overcome a specific vulnerability (for example, obtaining employment, school success, social inclusion, improved physical or mental health).

Social Impact Contracts (SICs) are an innovative mechanism that aims to promote experimentation with innovative solutions that differ from traditional social services in their potential for impact and sustainability.

The aim of SICs is to develop an innovative and efficient intervention on one or more social problems with the aim of generating a positive social impact, with pre-defined indicators and funding based on increasing the efficiency of public spending, per recipient, based on public policy measures in the areas of Social Protection, Education, Health, Employment and Justice.

Within the scope of this project, we refer to ‘Unitary Public Investment’ as the estimate of public expenditure incurred to finance social policy measures in Portugal, presented in a unitary unit of measurement (per person in a situation of vulnerability, per episode or others, depending on the nature of the cost), i.e. the unitary values associated with a public policy area.

For example, the average cost of a secondary school student in a public school per year or the monthly cost of a child or young person in a situation of danger, with a promotion and protection measure, sheltered in Foster Homes.

This is one of the five funding instruments created under the public initiative Portugal Social Innovation and was designed based on the successful experience of the Social Impact Bonds. More information can be found here.

The unit values presented here should be considered the best estimates available for analyzing social innovation and entrepreneurship initiatives that aim to provide more efficient and effective solutions for solving or mitigating social problems such as unemployment, the institutionalization of children and young people, social exclusion, school dropout or criminal recidivism.

Let’s imagine a unit value in the health area estimated at €200 per year. Correctly interpreted, this figure does not imply that each new citizen affected by this problem generates the same expense (just consider the fixed costs of any public policy measure). Only events that cause considerable changes in the size of the population affected by a given problem have a significant impact on the fixed costs of the organization that supports them (for example, leading to the closure or opening of new service centers or facilities).

Thus, the unit value or unit public investment should serve as a starting point for determining the economic impact of past or future events whose size will significantly affect the target population, rather than impacts at the level of the individual or very small samples.

On the One Value platform, you will find various types of unit indicators for Public Investment in the different areas of public policy, with direct costs incurred by the development of public policy measures in the areas of Social Protection, Education, Health, Employment and Justice.

Yes. All the values on the One Value platform can be found in reference documents, such as legislation, studies, terms of reference, or other official sources.

They are also validated by the public bodies responsible for implementing public policy in each thematic area, namely: the Social Security Institute, IP, the Directorate-General for Education, the Directorate-General for Health, the Executive Directorate of the SNS-DE and the Central Administration of the Health System, the Institute for Employment and Vocational Training, IP, the Directorate-General for Reintegration and Prison Services, or others considered relevant when updating them.

Thank you for your interest and availability to do so. You can contact One Value management team and suggest new topics by email: info.empis@pis.portugal2030.pt