KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia is ‘Doing Better’ in the philanthropy and social investment sector, judging by the performance of 15 Asian countries in the Doing Good Index (DGI).
DGI measured the respective performances in terms of four clusters ̶ ‘Doing Well’, ‘Doing Better’, ‘Doing Okay’ and ‘Not Doing Enough’. Each cluster represents the distance left to travel towards a conducive environment for doing good.
Malaysia was categorised in the ‘Doing Better’ cluster, together with Hong Kong, Korea, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Vietnam.
Japan, Taiwan and Singapore led in the ‘Doing Well’ cluster.
Meanwhile, China, India and Pakistan are merely ‘Doing Okay’, leaving Indonesia and Myanmar trailing in the ‘Not Doing Enough’ cluster.
In Malaysia, the study was conducted by Youth Trust Foundation (also known as myHarapan) and co-funded by Yayasan Hasanah, a sister entity of Khazanah Nasional, the investment holding arm of the Malaysian Government.
Malaysia also particularly, did well in two sub-indexes – Regulations and Ecosystem.
The Regulations sub-index evaluates laws and policies pertaining to philanthropic activity, examining some of the practicalities around what makes the giving and receiving of social investments.
The Ecosystem sub-index maps the supportive environment for giving of philanthropic funds and the delivery of services through four groups of indicators – public perception, institutional recognition, talent infrastructure and good governance.
DGI is a biennial study based on a set of indicators to show the regulatory and institutional infrastructure enabling or impeding philanthropic giving.
Four main areas were covered – regulatory regimes, tax and fiscal policy, government procurement and socio-cultural ecosystem, with the index revealing how Asian economies are catalysed philanthropic giving.
The survey was carried out from January to April 2017 with the participation of 1,579 social delivery organisations. ̶ Bernama
