Sustainability and Social Investment: Community Microhydropower Systems in the Dominican Republic

Sustainability remains an underestimated concept when assessing the impact of philanthropic and social investments in communities due to the difficult task of conciliating human development, economy, and environmental protection. Currently, financial cost-effectiveness is one of the main criteria for decision-making. However, under a social investing and climate justice framework, monetary valuation of impacts is never enough to assess the complexity of livelihoods. A multi-stakeholder approach, based on common objectives and synergy among entities, is key for sustainability and social investments. Public institutions, private sector, international cooperation, and local civil society organizations work together in the development of initiatives that promote integral development. In the Dominican Republic and Haiti, community microhydropower systems have proved to be an effective model of social investment, climate justice, and sustainability. The response to a social need, such as access to electricity, has turned into a means for promoting a different approach, based on community empowerment. This article contains the experience of the successes and challenges of more than 50 community microhydropower systems, managed by local groups, which are working and demonstrating the meaning of sustainability and the positive nonmonetary impacts of social investing, opening future opportunities to expand the present 5% of private investment.