Swiss banks, gov't partner up to raise $1 bln for development projects
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Loading... - Elijah Hughes
- 02 Dec 2021
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Switzerland has launched a new public-private partnership to raise up to 1 billion Swiss francs ($1.09 billion) for social and environmental projects in developing countries.
Dubbed the Sustainable Development Goals Impact Finance Initiative, it is one of a number of 'blended finance' funds to launch in recent months to help ramp up investment in poorer countries - a key focus at the recent COP26 climate conference.
By pairing money and investment know-how from banks and government agencies, the hope is that this will attract private investors to projects in emerging markets that advance the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Blended finance initiatives, such as this, have increasingly been seen as critical to help fund social programs, including health and education, or back innovative energy and infrastructure projects, such as a recent private-public U.N. investment to distribute solar energy to off-grid communities in Kenya.
The U.N. also recently helped launch a blended finance scheme to fund coral reef conservation.
Switzerland's two biggest banks, UBS (UBSG.S) and Credit Suisse (CSGN.S), will participate in the new initiative alongside the Swiss government's State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) and its Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC).
"It is all about collaboration and joining forces ... to mobilize more finance for the SDGs in developing countries," SECO's State Secretary Marie-Gabrielle Ineichen-Fleisch said in a statement.
Switzerland is home to one of the United Nations' two international headquarters, and is also a leading financial centre for managing private wealth.
The initiative hopes to help scale up impact investing, which aims to generate measurable environmental and social impact alongside financial returns, by providing grants and early-stage funding for promising projects.
For many private sector investors, projects in emerging markets are considered too risky. To help assuage these concerns, so-called blended finance initiatives partner public or charitable investors with the private sector. Read More…
