This paper discusses why and how the EC started to promote blended finance as an innovative financial tool to support the role of the private sector to push for the bloc´s policy agenda for international development.
Paper long abstract:
Blended finance is now the current trend in international development finance to help raising additional resources to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Agenda by 2030. It involves the combination of grant aid sourced from official ODA with other private or public sources of finance, such as loans, risk capital and/or equity. The European Commission (EC) has been leading this push since 2007 with the creation of several regional-focused blended finance instruments. This paper discusses why and how the EC started to promote blended finance as an innovative financial tool to support the role of the private sector to push for the bloc´s policy agenda for international development.