As part of our first interview in a series with Social Value International networks across the world, I had a chat with Jonathan Choo, the Assistant Manager for Social Value Malaysia. Let’s dive into some of what I learned about the world of impact evaluation in Malaysia!

Looking at the history of impact evaluation frameworks in Malaysia, Jonathan explained to me how the impact landscape is quite scattered prior to the rise of the social value movement, with no existing institutionalised evaluation committee. Social Value Malaysia evolved from a non-profit philanthropy organisation called Social Innovation Movement, which is how Jonathan started getting involved through writing a grant for them during his PhD.

The profile of Social Value Malaysia’s trainees is quite diverse and is balanced across industries. They include players from the finance, gas and oil, education or property development industries as well as social enterprises and NGOs. What might come as a surprise to the Canadian perspective is that all of Social Value Malaysia’s Level 1 Practitioners come from the private sector. This is because the cost of accreditation is more affordable for private companies, forming a sort of barrier for the non-profit organizations, which Social Value Malaysia is trying to tackle by ensuring the value-added benefits of the accreditation is being announced properly to the clients.  For now, the role of private companies is thus essential to their business model and plays a large role in the spread of the social value movement in Malaysia.

Interesting upcoming projects include supporting the redesign of the social impact management framework for a large Malaysian Government-linked company (GLC). This opportunity could be key to Social Value Malaysia’s growth as the brand name recognition of this GLC could truly propel them forward. This year, they have also been running in-house training programs for universities and large companies. Jonathan sees this work as a shift in the general public’s knowledge of SROI and impact measurement, which has resulted in a growth of the demand for Social Value Malaysia’s trainings.  

Regarding the courses they offer, the SROI training and the SDG Impact Standards training, Jonathan does notice a 3:1 ratio in favour of SROI training. He recalls that one of the challenges they face is in finding sufficient trainees in C-suite or senior level executive positions, while they generally manage to encounter and train more people in junior level positions.  Training more people at the C-suite level is a strategic objective for Social Value Malaysia as involving them ensures more avenues for top-bottom change and longevity, the idea being to enact social value principle from both a strategic thinker and an enabler-executer point of view with the multiple levels of training.  This would then trickle down to the lower management, enabling an organization-wide transformation that embeds impact into its core operation rather than as an afterthought.

Finally, Social Value Malaysia is undergoing a process of restructuring of their courses by implementing a blended e-learning approach with Thinkific. This solution would allow them to accommodate the demand for in-person trainings while balancing logistical constraints.

I hope you enjoyed learning a little about Social Value Malaysia’s point of view! To hear some of Jonathan’s direct responses to my questions, which offer a lot of valuable information, feel free to check out the transcript!