Karen Ngui, Head, DBS Foundation, on moving beyond short-term relief, measuring meaningful outcomes, adapting social-impact programmes across markets and using technology to build more inclusive solution
DBS Foundation was established in 2014 as an extension of DBS Bank’s purpose-led approach, with the bank focused on creating financial value and the foundation focused on creating social impact and social value. Over the years, the foundation’s work has expanded to areas including financial and digital literacy, social entrepreneurship, employability, ageing and resilience, with a focus on helping vulnerable communities build the capabilities to improve their lives and livelihoods.
Speaking to BW Businessworld in an interaction, Karen Ngui, Head of DBS Foundation, says the organisation’s approach to social impact goes beyond providing immediate assistance. For the foundation, relief is only the starting point, with the larger goal being to help communities build long-term resilience, strengthen their financial capabilities and become better equipped to improve their economic circumstancesThe road to resilience“Resilience is central to what we do. Making sure that people have the daily necessities, the everyday needs, and that access to it taken care of, is a means of providing relief such that they can build resilience. The notion of social resilience is very important,” Karen Ngui says.The foundation also draws on capabilities that come from its connection with DBS Bank, particularly in financial and digital literacy and supporting businesses. “As a bank, our superpower is financial literacy and digital literacy. It’s about helping businesses to grow, and that’s where we’re applying those skill sets to show up financial resilience,” Ngui says.The focus, she added, is not simply financial inclusion but enabling people to use that access to improve their circumstances. “It’s not just inclusion, but it’s building resilience such that they then can uplift themselves, be equipped to find better jobs, grow their businesses, and a better cycle can begin,” she explains.Mapping changeThe foundation’s approach to impact measurement goes beyond counting beneficiaries. According to Ngui, social outcomes often take time because programmes are attempting to influence behaviour, mindsets and the way people live.“There is no singular metric. There are output measures and outcome measures. When it comes to the area of social impact, you need to play the long game and take a long-term view", she states.The foundation works with programme partners, including Haqdarshak and The/Nudge, as well as ‘businesses for impact '. Particularly, its partnership with The/Nudge is aimed at supporting 85,000 low-income households. For each programme, the foundation maps a theory of change and agrees milestones with its partners. These milestones help track progress while longer-term outcomes develop.“A blunt instrument is the number of beneficiaries. It’s a blunt instrument, because we could go for reach, but not depth. We need to look at both breadth and depth to effect change,” Ngui says, citing financial literacy programme as an example.Ngui further explains that training people is an output, but whether participants subsequently use digital banking or digital payments is a more meaningful outcome.India needs a different approachThe foundation operates across six markets including India, Singapore, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Taiwan and China. However, they do not apply a single operating model across them.Ngui says the common charter is to support less-fortunate communities, uplift lives and livelihoods and strengthen social resilience. How that is achieved depends on local demographics and the challenges faced by each market.India, in particular, has a relatively developed social sector, helped partly by the country’s corporate social responsibility framework for the organisation. The foundation brings businesses and social aspects closer together.“India as a purpose-driven organisation, we’d like to see a meeting of minds in the middle because businesses have a responsibility, and charities cannot just rely on handouts the whole time as it’s not sustainable,” she adds.This is also why the foundation has supported social enterprises and businesses for impact.“Social enterprises have to have a good business model, they have to make money, and then they can then do good,” Ngui explains.Scaling local solutionsRather than treating social impact as a fixed regional template, DBS Foundation adapts programmes to local needs. In India, one challenge is not necessarily a lack of government schemes or funding, but access to them.Ngui points to Haqdarshak, a longstanding foundation partner, which works to connect people with welfare and government schemes.“In Singapore, there’s a lot of training and workshops because large-small reach is not a challenge for us. But in India, it’s different that’s why you have the likes of Haqdarshak, unlocking all the welfare schemes and the government schemes that are in place,” she asserts.“It’s not that there’s no funding. It is people being unable to access it. At the end, it’s still about creating financial resilience, but the approach is quite different,” she adds.The foundation also looks at whether models developed in one market can be adapted elsewhere. Haqdarshak, for instance, is exploring work in Indonesia through connections facilitated by the wider DBS network.Ngui shares the scale of the challenge means such efforts cannot be treated as short-term projects. Haqdarshak is looking to expand its reach, while younger entrepreneurs are increasingly working on social problems.Ageing is about longevityThe foundation’s work on ageing also takes a broader view. Ngui believes that ageing should not be reduced to old age care but considered as a demographic shift that affects how people work, live and care for one another. Instead, the foundation looks at longevity and the implications of people living longer.“It’s more from a lens of longevity. People are living longer. It's about how one can live longer and live better. The earlier we start acting on it, the better,” Ngui says. The approach also connects ageing with other changes, including climate pressures, the cost of living and artificial intelligence. The objective is to prepare vulnerable communities to adapt rather than simply address problems after they emerge.AI as an enablerAI is another emerging tool for social impact, although Ngui said its use should remain tied to practical needs rather than become an end in itself. “There’s huge potential to leverage AI in the right way,” she says, pointing to applications across the foundation’s ecosystem.One example is EverCare in Hong Kong, which uses AI algorithms to match caregivers with people who need care. In Taiwan, another business for impact uses AI to support caregivers and nurses with case notes.Ngui said AI could also help address India’s language diversity by making government schemes and training material easier to understand across languages. “Humanity plus AI is what we’re looking at,” she stated. She also sees AI as a potential leveller by widening access to knowledge and information.“In many ways, AI is also a big leveler. In the past, maybe the more fortunate could have access to certain knowledge and information. But now we are democratising knowledge,” Ngui concluded.
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