Convened by Danny Cassimon and Nadia Molenaers, Institute of Development Policy, University of Antwerp

“Blended finance at scale” is one of the headline promises after the Seville Finance for Development summit. While it has been pitched as the bridge between public purpose and private capital, in reality, money still struggles to reach the places that need it most:

· low-income,

· fragile,

· conflict-affected settings, and/or

· sanctioned jurisdictions (that need assistance for humanitarian relief and essential-services).

As these settings have in common that they are considered as ‘high-risk’ environments, public-private blended finance is often put forward as a desirable alternative solution, as it allows for (public) “de-risking” required to attract private capital participation. However, the lofty policy principles upstream seem to encounter numerous challenges and obstacles downstream. How to design, put in practice and set in motion such blended finance interventions that foster development effectiveness, while avoiding instruments and practices that lead to an unfair distribution of costs and benefits on public and/or private actors, is the topic of this seed panel. Hence, it probes the public–private risk bargain that determines who gets funded, on what terms, and through which payment rails, in such a way that also upscaling can be realized.

Within that topic, we invite research (proposals) that e.g. look into

· How donors and private actors design funding access and treat risks in blended finance for high risk environments, such as low-income, fragile, and/or conflict-affected settings?

· How to design blended finance forms and formats that enable lawful flows in high-risk sanctioned environments (e.g., under humanitarian/essential-services exemptions)?

· In what way successful small-scale experiments in one setting can be

      o successfully translated to another setting, and/or

      o can be successfully upscaled

· What “de-risking” tools are most appropriate (effective and efficient) in particular settings?

· Which channels and intermediaries between funders and recipients can help to reduce transaction, monitoring and compliance costs, e.g. needed for upscaling?