This document summarizes a social return on investment (SROI) evaluation of tobacco control programs funded by ThaiHealth in Thailand. It provides background on SROI methodology, outlines the stages of an SROI analysis including identifying outcomes, valuing impacts, and calculating the SROI ratio. For the ThaiHealth tobacco control programs, key outcomes included reduced health spending and increased productivity from fewer smokers. The SROI ratio found that for every 1 baht invested, there was a social return of 18.3 baht, indicating a positive return on investment for tobacco control programs in Thailand. Limitations of the SROI analysis are also discussed.

1. Poranee Laoitthi
Piya Hanvoravongchai
Faculty of Medicine, Chulalongkorn University
Bangkok Thailand.
29 Jan 2014

2. • Social Return On Investment
(SROI) Evaluation Concept
• SROI for tobacco control by
ThaiHealth
• Results
• Discussion and Limitations

3. What is Social Return on
Investment (SROI)?
SROI is “a way of understanding how effectively money is
spent.”
• SROI = Value of Benefits
Investment
Example: SROI = 10
Every
Source: NEF Consulting Group $1 investment
equals to social
return of $10

4. SROI & Value for
Money Concept
have been used:
“VfM is defined as the
optimum combination of
whole-of-life costs and quality
(or fitness for purpose) of the
good or service to meet the
user’s requirement. VfM is not
the choice of goods and
services based on the
lowest cost bid.”
UK HM Treasury (2006) Value for
money guidance

5. Triple Bottom Line
Measurement of values across the ‘triple
bottom line’
The economy
The environment
People
Source: NEF Consulting Group

6. SROI Principles
1.
Involve Stakeholders
2.
Understand what changes
3.
Value the things that matter
4.
Only include what is material
5.
Do not over claim
6.
Be transparent
7.
Verify the result
Source: NEF Consulting Group

7. Stages of an SROI analysis
1. Engage stakeholders to identify outcomes
• Theory of Changes
• inputs > activities > outputs > outcomes
2. Data collection
• Outcomes
• Impacts: Deadweight, Attribution,
Displacement
• Benefit period and drop off
3. Model and calculate: Valuation of outcomes
4. Report

8. Measuring &
Valuing Outcomes
Outcomes
Indicators
Monetary
Value
Outcome
incidence
(Monetary Unit)

9. Assessing Impacts
outcome
incidence
Minus
deadweight
incidence
what would have
happened
anyway
Multiply by
attribution
rate
Minus
displacement
The proportion an
organization can
take credit for
social
benefit
value moved
from elsewhere

10. SROI of ThaiHealth:
Tobacco Control
ตัวอย่างการประเมินการลงทุน
ของ สสส.
โดยใช้ SROI

11. SROI
evalua+on
using
macro
perspec+ve
• SROI
Assessment
can
be
done
at
the
project
or
aggregate
level.
• ThaiHealth
supported
1,000++
projects
• Several
projects
address
small
specific
acBviBes
that
may
not
be
directly
linked
to
key
outputs/
outcomes
• Assessing
each
project
may
not
be
appropriate:
– Do
not
cover
the
whole
spectrum
of
desired
outputs/
outcomes
– May
double
count
some
of
the
expected
outputs

12. Outcome measurement
Economy
Environment
Social and
Health
• Household spending on cigarettes and
tobacco
Cancelled out
• Economic returns to producers and sellers
• Health and well being of smokers
averted: Avoidable health
spending & productivity gained
from avoided illnesses
• Family mental health: willingness
to pay
• Societal benefit: willingness to
pay

13. Modeling changes in
outcome indicators
• Use data on Tobacco consumption from National
representative surveys done by National Statistics
Office (10 x-sectional datasets from 1986- 2009)
• Estimate cohort specific pattern of smoking
prevalence across datasets (sex & year-of-birth
cohorts) based on pre-ThaiHealth patterns
• Estimate smoker prevalence of each cohort if
ThaiHealth does not exist
• Calculate averted smokers from actual vs estimated
smokers in each cohort for 2001-2010

14. Prevalence in Male
by age cohorts

15. Monetary value of
averted smokers
Physical health
= Avoidable health expenditure &
productivity gained
= (no. of smokers averted by age-sex)*
(estimated health spending and productivity
lost for one smoker by age-sex)
Note: value of health spending and productivity lost per smoker
from Montarat Thaworncharoensup et al 2011

16. Valuing Outcomes
Family mental health
• Willingness to pay of family with smokers*
numbers of households with averted smokers
Societal benefit
=willingness to pay of general pop to have one
fewer smoker

17. Valuing Outcomes
Physical
Health
Family
Mental
Health
Societal
benefit
Total
= 29,257,469,937.0 + 29 Bil Baht
(-405,467,511.0)
= 3,546.39 baht
*268,576 households
952 Mil
Baht
= 898 baht *
324,074
averted smokers
291 Mil
Baht
30 Bil Baht

18. COST ASSESSMENT

19. Investments by ThaiHealth
1.4 Bil baht
Indirect
cost
Office
1
program
1
Admini
stratio
n cost
Program
2
Program
3
Office 5
Program
10
program
program
Program 1.36 Bil baht
Direct cost23 mil baht
Indirect 43.7 mil baht
Financial
support
to
program
Public
communi
cation
Source: HITAP

20. CALCULATING SROI

21. Calculation SROI
SROI ratio is 18.3:1.
(12.5-19.8)
For the equivalent of 1 baht invested in tobacco
control program, 18.3 baht return on social
value.

22. Limitations and
suggestion
• Does not include all results that can not be easily
valued e.g. changes in social norms
• Financial proxies may be difficult to measure e.g.
WTP for social benefits
• There might be biases from the involvement of
stakeholders in determining attribution level
• Activities may effect future preventable smokers;
these were not taken into account in this study.
• Did not consider displacement into other negative
behavior e.g. drug use.
• Equity blinded (no assessment of equity dimension)