When a pod of whales swims by, it’s worth putting down the binoculars to witness the moment in full color. That just happened in our world of blended finance.
Blended finance activity has remained relatively flat, gauging from the data Convergence has been able to verify and record stretching back over a decade. Its ups and downs have reflected the broader patterns in portfolio investment in developing markets, but we haven’t seen the swift upward trajectory that would signify that blended finance has become a routine solution for stretching development dollars or making transactions bankable for global investment houses. Our own State of Blended Finance 2023 tells this story.
Then came 2023 and, significantly, the 28th United Nations Climate Change Conference, or COP 28.
About the author
Joan Larrea
Joan Larrea is the CEO of Convergence and an expert in catalyzing investment in places that need it most. She has close to 30 years of experience in emerging markets investing, including at the defunct U.S. Overseas Private Investment Corporation (now the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation), the Global Environment Fund, and the International Finance Corporation. Since 2016, Joan’s leadership has driven Convergence to become a global independent authority for blended finance. As CEO, Joan ensures Convergence continues to grow the field of blended finance through its products and services and accelerates the flow of private capital into SDG projects across Africa, Asia, and Latin America.
