by Renata Samadova -

MICROFINANCE EVENT: Grow to Zero Conference; June 26-27, 2023; London, UK

Themed “Catalysing Finance for Impact,” this event will cover ways of leveraging blended finance, carbon markets and digitisation to enable transition to net-zero emissions and other forms of sustainable development. The agenda features sessions such as: (1) Challenges to 2030: How to Finance

by Rohit Dayanand -

MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Ilu Women’s Empowerment Fund Invests $1m in Acceso Financiero for Microfinance in Honduras

The managers of the Ilu Women’s Empowerment Fund recently invested USD 1 million from the fund in the Honduran unit of Mexico-based Acceso Financiero, a microfinance institution (MFI) that provides credit to approximately 40,000 low-income clients in rural El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Mexico. The investment, which is in the form of “risk adjusted blended finance capital,” is

by Aakansha Shenoy -

MICROFINANCE PAPER WRAP-UP: “Deploying Blended Finance to Mobilize Investment at Scale in Food and Agriculture;” by Bettina Prato et al; Published by SAFIN, Convergence

The authors of this paper discuss the “financing landscape” of the food and agriculture sector and argue in favor of increasing the deployment of blended finance, “the use of catalytic capital from public or philanthropic sources to increase private sector investment.” A report from the 2019 UN Conference on Trade and Development estimates that the private sector could fund

by Michelle Fleming -

MICROFINANCE PAPER WRAP-UP: “Blended Finance 2.0: Giving Voice to the Private Sector;” by Maria Teresa Zappia, Nadina Stodie; published by BlueOrchard

This is a summary of a paper written by Maria Teresa Zappia and Nadina Stodie, published by BlueOrchard, 2018, 30 pages, available at: http://www.blueorchard.com/wp-content/uploads/181016_BlueOrchard_Blended_Finance-2.0.pdf

This paper focuses on research conducted by BlueOrchard, a Switzerland-based impact-investing firm, regarding how the public and private sectors can use “blended finance” to partner on achieving the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Although work on the SDGs is dominated by the public sector, the authors argue for increasing