The Economic Security Impact Accelerator 2019

Supporting a cohort of changemakers who are looking to have a greater impact on good work, inclusive growth and the overall economic security of the UK’s workers.

We live in insecure times. Despite record levels of employment, over 7 million people in working households live below the poverty line. Workers have seen their earnings decline in real terms. Meanwhile, zero hours contracts and gig economy platforms have become an enduring feature of our labour market.

The RSA defines economic security as the degree of confidence a person has in maintaining a decent quality of life, now and in the future, given their economic circumstances.

If we want growth that is fair, sustainable and above all, inclusive, we must address the diminishing sense economic security of today’s workers. That means not simply focussing on large scale infrastructure and inward investment into our communities, but also on human-scale projects and initiatives that directly promote good work, civic inclusion, reduce inequalities and enable secure and reliable household incomes. 

That is why the RSA is partnering with the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth to grow the ecosystem for these initiatives and target some of the most promising innovations in this rapidly growing field.  We will host an Economic Security Impact Accelerator in Summer / Autumn 2019 to support a cohort of changemakers seeking to have a greater impact on good work, inclusive growth and the overall economic security of the UK’s workers.

The Economic Security Impact Accelerator will assemble a diverse group. We will work collaboratively, think publically and grow the potential of the group’s collective impact through an intensive programme – augmented by the RSA and the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth's leading-edge research on the economy, economic security and the future of work - of learning, networking, reflection and development.

The impact we want to achieve

We aim to enable participants to take their place in a movement that is building a new ‘system’ for modern economic security - a new kind of supportive infrastructure for people to have confidence in their economic circumstances in this new world of work.

That might mean new services, products and platforms. It might mean new relationships, structures, institutions. It will mean changing the rules of the game.

The success of individual solutions depends in part on the success of the whole field. For us to have a greater impact, we need to deepen our understanding of the landscape as it emerges, carefully consider our role within that landscape and the capabilities we can bring forward to effect change. This will enable us to see ourselves not only as entrepreneurs but as system builders.

Entrepreneurs change systems by demonstrating new approaches, defining new markets and proving demand, configuring resources and actors in new ways, and amplifying the efforts of others.

In this program we’ll focus on developing our capabilities for:

• Social impact - direct outcomes for the people who benefit from our initiatives
• Business impact - growing healthy, sustainable initiatives that meet the challenge
• System impact - changed system conditions that lead to wider benefit and enable further initiatives to take root

Layers of learning

Find out more about the RSA's work on the Future Work Centre.

The RSA

The RSA (Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce) believes that everyone should have the freedom and power to turn their ideas into reality. Through our ideas, research and nearly 30,000-strong Fellowship, we seek to realise a society where creative power is distributed, where concentrations
of power are confronted, and where creative values are nurtured.