Social return on investment - Accounting for value in the context of implementing Health 2020 and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (2017)

Social return on investment (SROI) is a concept to account for social value when evaluating investments. It goes beyond traditional economic evaluation tools, by considering value produced for multiple stakeholders in all three dimensions of development: economic, social and environmental. This discussion paper reviews the main features of SROI (stakeholder engagement, the theory of change and accounting for social value) and finds that they are coherent with the key features of the Health 2020 policy framework and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. It concludes that SROI represents an interesting opportunity to evaluate cross-sectoral investments which aim to promote health and development, in the WHO European Region and beyond.