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Will corporations open up their pocketbooks to serve the greater good and not just their shareholders?
Also in today’s edition: Ukraine wouldn’t mind some money as well — if your idea of “some” is hundreds of billions of dollars — and a new cancer deal that comes with a catch.
Tapping the corporate spigot
There’s zero chance of reaching the Sustainable Development Goals using only public funds, especially considering that many government budgets are already stretched to the max. The SDG gap is estimated to be an astonishing $4.2 trillion a year. That’s trillion, not billion. It will take the private sector to plug that yawning gap.
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Many investors have already jumped on board, propelling the movement of impact investing, which entails making intentional investments with specific targets on issues such as reducing poverty and improving health care.
But there could be another untapped pool of money: corporations.
Companies worldwide sit on large piles of cash, my colleague Adva Saldinger reports. Could some of that be turned into corporate impact investments to serve the greater good and not just shareholders?
Maybe.
To get to yes, the Global Impact Investing Network recently launched an initiative to dip into some $2 trillion of capital that it estimates is in those corporate coffers.
Some companies have already been dipping their toes into impact investing, following the lead of pioneers such as Salesforce, Johnson & Johnson, and Patagonia.
“We’re just scratching the surface,” Amit Bouri, CEO of the Global Impact Investing Network, told Adva ahead of the GIIN’s annual forum at The Hague. “Most companies don’t know it’s an option.”
Corporate impact investing: Will it bring in new money?
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Invest your time in us
You can also meet Adva tomorrow at this year’s Future of Development Finance event hosted by Devex in London.
She’ll be joined by my colleagues David Ainsworth and Jessica Abrahams, along with a host of speakers from organizations ranging from the Open Society Foundations and Microsoft to an alphabet soup of important acronyms: WHO, UNDP, OECD, USADF, ODI, EIB, and BII, among many others.
Not in London (and who can blame you given the country’s political dramatics)? Don’t worry — you can still watch virtually. Register now.
Time to rebuild?
Tuesday also marks a big day for Ukraine, which is looking to the world to step up during a major reconstruction conference in Berlin, even as Russian bombs continue to pound its cities and towns into darkness.
While U.S. and European military aid continues to flow into Ukraine, which has valiantly resisted Russia’s invasion, estimated costs to rebuild the country range from $350 billion up to a jaw-dropping $1 trillion.
Will international donors stomach that kind of generosity?
Werner Hoyer, the president of the European Investment Bank, says swallow it now or pay more later.
“Some ministers in the European Union are hiding behind the argument that in times of war, you do not continue to finance things,” Hoyer tells our Brussels Correspondent Vince Chadwick. “And this I think is dead wrong. I'm of the firm opinion that the [time to provide] support for the running of the Ukrainian economy is now.”
EIB boss: Fund Ukraine now or we’ll be asked to rebuild Russia
Related: How to sustain Ukraine's economy for the next 6 months — and beyond
Breakthrough or bust?
While Vince was in Côte d’Ivoire, my colleague Jessica was in Geneva for the World Cancer Conference, where she learned about a deal to make a cancer treatment more accessible in low- and middle-income countries. But is the deal all it’s cracked up to be?
The Medicines Patent Pool signed a voluntary licensing agreement with Swiss pharmaceutical giant Novartis for nilotinib, a lifesaving drug that is used to treat chronic myeloid leukemia.
The deal is being hailed as a breakthrough, but with only a small number of patients expected to benefit, advocates say its significance is largely symbolic.
In fact, the main patent on nilotinib is set to expire in only nine months, and with generic manufacturers not even chosen yet, it’s unlikely that any drugs will actually be produced by then.
Still, it may set an important precedent.
In an interview with Swissinfo, Charles Gore, MPP’s executive director, said: “In terms of the number [of patients] this isn’t a huge deal but in terms of what it represents, it is a big deal because it’s never been done before.”
Read: Medicines Patent Pool signs first cancer deal — but there's a catch (Pro)
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Shifting mindsets
Localization, localization, localization. It seems to be another thing we keep hearing in development circles that is not happening.
Jeroo Billimoria, the founder of the One Family Foundation, is one of the skeptics, although she says the lack of action is not for lack of good intentions.
Two big obstacles that stand in the way are a lack of trust that local organizations can deliver and entrenched pushback to relinquishing power.
She outlines fundamental questions philanthropists need to ask themselves if there’s to be a tangible shift in mentality.
Opinion: To truly walk the talk is to decolonize philanthropy
In other news
The European Union will support discussions on climate-vulnerable countries' demand for “loss and damage” compensation at the 27th United Nations Climate Change Conference, where the bloc's final negotiating position could be a breakthrough for the clamoring countries. [Reuters]
The Asian Development Bank approved a $1.5 billion loan to flood-ravaged Pakistan to help the country's social protection and food security. [Bloomberg]
The U.S. climate envoy says King Charles III should revisit his prior announcement not to attend COP 27, noting that the former Prince of Wales had spent decades advocating for environmental causes. [BBC]
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About the author
Anna Gawel
Anna Gawel is the Managing Editor of Devex. She previously worked as the managing editor of The Washington Diplomat, the flagship publication of D.C.’s diplomatic community. She’s had hundreds of articles published on world affairs, U.S. foreign policy, politics, security, trade, travel and the arts on topics ranging from the impact of State Department budget cuts to Caribbean efforts to fight climate change. She was also a broadcast producer and digital editor at WTOP News and host of the Global 360 podcast. She holds a journalism degree from the University of Maryland in College Park.
