SAS Framework

Sixteen thematic Social Impact Assessment Standards tell an assessor what to look for in a health project, a housing project, or a financial-inclusion project. Something else has to set the common ground rules that apply before any of those sixteen even come into play. That is the job of the SAS Framework.

The workbook's own description: the SAS Framework "provides guidance for the elements and objectives of an assessment." It gives a frame of reference to two groups: social impact assessors performing the assessment, and the responsible party, engaging party and other stakeholders who will read and rely on the report.

What the SAS Framework does not do matters just as much. It does not itself set standards or specific requirements for any thematic area — poverty, climate change, health, and so on. Those live in the individual, numbered standards, such as SAS 200 or SAS 500.

The workbook gives the SAS Framework its own objective and scope (Chapter 5, sections 5.6.1 and 5.6.2):

Objectives:

1. Guide social impact assessment of SSE-registered or listed enterprises' projects, and of any other organisation's projects too.
2. Guide preparation of the Social Impact Assessment Report, based on the assessor's findings, procedures and evidence.

Scope:

• Applies to SSE social enterprises' project assessments, using the principles in the individual SASs.
• May also apply to other engagements, such as CSR Impact Assessment under the Companies (CSR Policy) Amendment Rules, 2021.
• Where there are no intended users beyond the reporting entity itself, the assessor's report must state that its use is restricted to the reporting entity.

Compliance with SAS — both the Framework and the relevant thematic standard — is mandatory for social enterprises listed on an SSE. Where an assessor cannot follow SAS, the report must draw attention to the material departures.

Illustrative engagement; figures are made up.

Nirvaha Assessors, a Social Impact Assessment Organisation, takes on two engagements in one quarter: an SSE-listed NPO's watershed project, and a private company's voluntary CSR impact review, unconnected to any SSE listing.

For the SSE-listed project, applying the SAS Framework — and the correct thematic standard beneath it, such as SAS 500 for environmental work — is mandatory. For the private CSR review, Nirvaha and the company may agree to apply the same Framework's principles, since there are no other intended users, and Nirvaha's report states its use is restricted to the company itself.

Had Nirvaha been unable to obtain enough evidence on the SSE-listed project — say, three villages were inaccessible after floods — it would have to disclose that as a material departure from the SAS Framework's guidance.

Chapter 5 (Social Impact Assessment and Social Impact Assessors), sections 5.6, 5.6.1 and 5.6.2, set out the SAS Framework's objectives, scope and the mandatory-compliance rule. Chapter 5's first sample question asks who developed the framework — ICAI. Expect a question on what the Framework does and does not cover.

• The SAS Framework sets no thematic requirements of its own — poverty, health, climate and other themes each have their own numbered standard (SAS 100 to SAS 1600).
• Mandatory for SSE-listed social enterprises; optional but permitted for other engagements, such as CSR impact assessments.
• The Framework excludes any element of a financial audit, review, or statutory/internal/tax audit.
• For the list of all sixteen thematic standards, see Social Impact Assessment Standards — this page covers only the overarching Framework above them.