TPB working paper
Work in Progress

TPB notes concerning White Paper 3 of the Seratio initiative

Burgess COMMENTARY

Peter Burgess

A Phronesis Impact World Phronesis Phronesis (Ancient Greek: φρόνησις, phronēsis) is a Greek word for a type of wisdom or intelligence. It is more specifically a type of wisdom relevant to practical things, requiring an ability to discern how or why to act virtuously and encourage practical virtue, excellence of character, in others. To create a Phronesis inspired impact world – one with real world instruments that are practical today, not just in a lab - we have created the CCEG Blockchain UN Lab – a not-for-profit organization that is a spin-out from a UK university. This lab encompasses an open-source blockchain platform which has the capability to capture, measure, assess and transact ALL values. By using the S/E as the translation tool, we can compare values accurately across a range of measures, whilst retaining existing mechanisms and systems. The Blockchain lab has been created to facilitate a revolutionary change to measurement capability on a global Scale. It will be available to entities to deliver and measure their investment interventions or to sit alongside and in partnership with an organisation’s own systems to provide full and complete measurement of value across all Sustainable Development Goals, to translate value systems to a common language, to participate in their transaction of value and to improve impact. Why is this important? We tend to measure only those categories and things that we already understand and believe we have the ability to monitor. This can be very limiting. Often, those types of measures of performance and outcomes are only a few of the impacts that are actually achieved. Complex measurement systems and data gathering efforts are expensive to implement and run. Their costs compete with the core funding to achieve the primary goal of the intervention investment. However, by not capturing the total results, inaccurate, uncertain measures are reported which frustrate and stymie potential future intervention confidence, ambition and appetite. An important case in point - the United Nations have realised Global Consensus for the Sustainable Development Goals ‘SDG’ with all the 193 Member States signed up. The 17 goals each have sub layers, targets, and the support of governments, NGOs, corporations and individuals who are working to achieve them. Reporting and progress assessment is already proving a mammoth and complex task. Simplicity and speed are being sought to de-mystify and align effort. The holy grail of reporting has, until now, only been a dream of the United Nations.