New Public-Private Partnership – Foundations, SECO and SDC launch cooperation to promote innovative development finance
The State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (Seco), UBS Optimus Foundation, Credit Suisse Foundation and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) launched the Sustainable Development Goals Impact Finance Initiative on 1. December 2021. The initiative aims to mobilize up to one billion Swiss francs in private capital to advance measurable impact in developing countries. SECO supports the initiative with 19.5 million Swiss francs.
The funding gap to meet the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030 is estimated at more than USD 2.5 trillion per year. Increasing private sector investment in developing countries will be essential to bridge this funding gap. The SDG Impact Finance Initiative aims to raise 100 million francs in funding by 2030 from public and philanthropic actors. These funds will be used to unlock up to 1 billion francs in additional private capital towards the SDGs in developing countries.
The initiative has three objectives:
- To support innovative financial solutions for new impact investing tools through grant and seed funding.
- To scale impact investing solutions by mobilizing more private capital and strengthening underlying portfolio companies.
- To contribute to improved framework conditions for impact investing in Switzerland and promote impact management practices. For this purpose, the initiative will cooperate closely with the association Swiss Sustainable Finance and the State Secretariat for International Finance.
The initiative will select the best solutions through competitive, international calls for proposals. The first call for proposals will be launched in early 2022 in collaboration with the organization Convergence.
SECO and its partners invite other philanthropic and public organizations to join the initiative.
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