WEF’s initiatives to boost developing countries

JOHANNESBURG: The World Economic Forum (WEF) is to launch three new initiatives to unlock billions of dollars of investment to help meet the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The initiatives are to take the form of Blended Finance measures, which refer to the strategic orientation of development finance and philanthropic funds to mobilise private capital flows to developing markets.

“Expanding public-private co-operation in the form of Blended Finance is one of the most important ways the international community can support developing countries as they seek to generate significant amounts of domestic and foreign investment required to meet their SDGs by 2030,” said the forum’s Richard Samans.

The three Blended Finance initiatives were expected to be announced yesterday on the sidelines of the UN Financing for Development Conference in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

Initiatives being launched would help to mobilise investment for projects supporting the SDGs, starting with an initial $100 billion (R1.24 trillion) over the next five years, the WEF statement said.

The WEF said that Blended Finance offered a win-win option for all parties: for development finance and philanthropic funders as they made their limited dollars go further; wins for private investors as they generated attractive returns and, most importantly, wins for those in developing countries as more funds were channelled to their communities in ways that enabled sustainable growth in the world’s poorest countries.

A recent survey conducted on behalf of the WEF identified 74 pooled funds and facilities representing $25.4bn in Blended Finance assets, with the funds impacting more than 177 million lives, demonstrating the tremendous potential of Blended Finance to close the funding gap required to finance the ambitious development agenda.

“We know that post-2015, financing the SDGs will be challenging.

“Innovative initiatives like this will help expand the pool of foreign and domestic capital,” said Canadian Minister of International Development Christian Paradis.

‘”There is plenty of money in the world available for sustainable development. Blending public and private finance is the best way to mobilise the $4 trillion needed to achieve the proposed SDGs’’, said Erik Solheim, chairperson of the development assistance committee.