Environmental Finance has launched a segment of its website dedicated to 'Blended Finance' and has partnered with the OECD on a conference on the topic, to help drive interest in this vital developmental theme.
The OECD defines blended finance as "the strategic use of development finance for the mobilisation of additional finance towards sustainable development in developing countries". 'Additional finance' refers primarily to commercial or private finance.
The more impactful deals use public finance or other forms of support to catalyse private finance to investments that would not otherwise have benefited from that investment. Examples of tools to crowd-in private finance include guarantees, credit enhancements, or junior or concessional tranches to help remove some of the risk for private sector investors.
Blended finance is considered an important tool in helping to plug the funding gap for meeting the UN's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). While the annual SDG financing gap stands at $3.9 trillion, private finance mobilised by official development interventions reached only $300 billion over 2012-2020, according to the OECD.
Blended finance is an increasingly important topic for policymakers, with the G20 launching an initiative to help it scale up.
Recognising the growing need for more blended finance, Environmental Finance has created a segment on its website to provide a home for the growing number of articles about the subject.
The segment on Environmental Finance and the conference will touch on numerous topics, including:
- Why capital is not flowing at scale to emerging markets, and what are the barriers blocking those flows?
- What are the structures or innovations needed to help plug the funding gap?
- What reforms of the financial architecture are needed to mobilise the required capital flows? And, how can multilateral development banks raise their game?
- What are the blended finance solutions that work and are scalable?
- What can be done to lessen the costs of mitigating currency risks?
Tony Gibson, CEO of Environmental Finance's parent company Field Gibson Media, said: "The only way the SDG financing gap can be closed is by mobilising private finance at scale.
"This is an important topic for Environmental Finance and its institutional investor readership. We are excited to be working with the OECD on this crucial event, to hear from the private sector about what they need to allocate more capital to sustainable investments in emerging markets, and to hear success stories of solutions that are working and have the potential to scale further."
Any private sector investors interested in attending the event should email events@fieldgibsonmedia.com
The content on the blended finance channel can be accessed here.
And information on the conference with the OECD can be accessed here.
