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Paper short abstract:

This paper contrasts the expected outcomes of Social Impact Bonds (SIBs) in Colombia, with the experiences of the people who have participated in the labour market insertion projects financed through them, while analyzing their rhetoric of "impact", "responsible capitalism" and "sustainability".

Paper long abstract:

Social Impact Bonds (SIBs) are financial investment products that link the ideals of financial returns to the production of a positive social impact. Through SIBs the Colombian government pays private investors to fund training and job placement projects for people considered “vulnerable”. If outcomes are achieved and demonstrated, i.e., a certain amount of job placements, the investors are paid their initial investment plus interest. Based on 9-months of ethnographic fieldwork in Colombia, in this paper I contrast the expected outcomes of these financial products with the lived experiences of people who have participated in the job placement projects. For them, formal employment is seen as a way out of uncertainty, as it brings a steady income; access to health insurance; benefits that can guarantee well-being in old age; the possibility of obtaining credit to buy housing, household appliances, furniture, among others. However, the jobs they end up getting cannot escape the realities of the precarious and exploitative labor market in Colombia, which is characterized by low wages, short-term contracts, long and exhausting working hours, and difficulties in getting promoted or finding better opportunities. Analyzing the rhetoric of “impact”, "responsible capitalism" and “sustainability", I explain how through SIBs the privatization of social services and the expansion of the financial markets has been enabled in Colombia. Furthermore, I argue that the uncertainty with which participants arrive at the job placement projects and formal jobs becomes inescapable when these, since their onset, SIBs reproduce the inequalities that they have set out to resolve.