Explore blended finance examples organized by Sustainable Development Goal (SDG). Hover over the SDG you are interested in and you will see a summary of each example, along with a link to learn more about it. Peruse these and use them as guides for your solution!
IFC and GEF supporting HIS Fund 2
The HIS Fund has invested in green homes certified by IFC’s EDGE green building standard which reduces energy and water usage translating to lower utility costs and less greenhouse gas emissions. Learn More
Aavishkaar Frontier Fund
The AFF invests in enterprises serving low-income populations in underserved geographies on a commercially sustainable basis in South and South-East Asia across sectors including healthcare, education, sanitation, and more. Learn More
California Freshworks
California FreshWorks provides grants and loans to food enterprises aiming to increase access to affordable healthy food, spur economic development and job creation while ensuring racially and socially equitable access to food in underserved and low-income communities in California. Learn More
ACELI Africa
Aceli Africa is a market incentive facility aimed at catalysing lending to agriculture in sub-Saharan Africa. Through its work, it hopes to address the region’s $65 billion annual financing gap for agricultural SMEs. Learn More
Green Fund
The Green Fund aims to de-risk investments in sustainable agricultural production with a focus on forest restoration, as well as tropical forest, peatland and biodiversity protection. Learn More
Abraaj Growth Markets Health Fund* (AGHF)
The AGHF is allocating its $1 billion fund across healthcare needs including acquiring catalytic anchor assets for the healthcare ecosystem, assembling proving innovation in the system, and adopting proven disruption innovations to scale. Learn More
USAID’s Catalyze Eduplatform’s Fund
The Catalyze Eduplatform’s Fund is allocating its $250 million dollar investments to implement sustainable education business models for LIC’s and to achieve Women’s Global Development and Prosperity goals. Learn More
Quality Education India Development Impact Bond (QEI DIB)
The Quality Education India Development Impact Bond aims to solve the learning crises in India by improving grade learning outcomes of primary school children through assistance of private sector involvement; hopefully leading to standardized education plans for the future. Learn More
Educate Girls Development Impact Bond
The Educate Girls Development Impact Bond (DIB) aimed at increasing enrollment and improving learning levels for girls partnered with investors to implement their education plans. The 3-year project exceeded their goals with learning targets 160% of the predicted number and 116% of predicted enrollment levels, creating a greater amount of return earned back by investors. Learn More
Care SheTrades
Care has raised over $10 million in capital to integrate gender equality into enterprises focused on supporting women by improving economic inequities in South and Southeast Asia. Learn More
Tajikistan: Women in Business Program
The Women in Business programme promotes women’s entrepreneurship through access to finance and know-how in order to stimulate business growth. The proposed blended finance package promotes the introduction of innovative MSME financing products via a leading microfinance institution in Tajikistan. Learn More
NWP and KIFFWA Partnership for Clean Water
Both the Netherlands Water Partnership (NWP) and the Kenya Innovative Finance Facility for Water (KIFFWA) have partnered to provide capital and guidance to Kenyan project developers to create climate resilient water initiatives. So far, this partnership has used 2.2 million euros to fund 8 water initiatives and provided 30,000 Kenyans with access to potable water at less than ⅓ of the original cost per liter. Learn More
SunFunder
SunFunder is the leading debt-financing provider for distributed solar in Africa and other emerging regions, bringing access to energy and long-term climate investments. It has closed over USD 150 million in loans to 57 solar companies working in off-grid solar, mini-grids, agri-solar and other commercial and industrial (C&I) solar projects. The investments have resulted in over 8 million people gaining improved energy access and an average of 750,000 tons of CO2 mitigated per year. Learn More
Aucumen Resilient Agriculture Fund
The Acumen Resilient Agriculture Fund (ARAF) aims to shift investments to adaptive agricultural investments in Africa to benefit smallholder farms by increasing productivity and resilience to climate effects. Learn More
AGDEVCO
AGDEVCO is providing technical assistance and investments for early stage African agribusinesses; they focus on employing women, improving food processing, and connecting businesses to a wider market. Learn More
Arch Cold Chain Solutions
Based in East Africa, the Arch Cold Chain Solutions is investing in the creation and operation of temperature controlled food-storing in order to limit food spoilage. Learn More
Microinsurance Program in Fiji
The island of Fiji is extremely vulnerable to natural disasters but only nine percent of the population currently holds life insurance. The UN Pacific Financial Program has partnered with the SPC and RESPAC to build a microfinance program to aid these communities to prepare for natural disasters. The program intends to research the potential risks faced by the islands and build a vital adaptation strategy in order to ensure that the entire community can overcome the natural disasters. Learn More
Clarmondial Food Securities Fund
The Food Securities Fund provides season-long working capital loans to agricultural aggregators in emerging markets, addressing the common gap of timely and affordable credit. Learn More
North Carolina Affordable Housing
Bank of America, Ally Financial and Barings said they will invest a combined $70.75 million to fund low-income housing developments in Charlotte, giving a boost to the city’s efforts to address the affordable housing shortage. Combined, the city is hoping to raise $100 million for its affordable housing push. Half of that comes from bonds that voters approved in November, and half will come from private sources, via a new fund coordinated by the nonprofit Foundation for the Carolinas and administered by low-income housing developer Local Initiatives Support Corporation. Learn More
Trado Data-for-Benefits Swap
Trado is a project led by the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership and a consortium of agricultural supply chain stakeholders who are using blockchain technology and financial incentives to improve supply chain transparency and sustainability. Creating transparency along the supply chain is important for large food retailers as the data can track positive impact and show compliance with environmental and social standards. The pre-shipment financing at a cheaper rate incentivizs the companies to provide additional production data. Learn More
The Pilot Program for Climate Resilience
The Pilot Program for Climate Resilience (PPCR) is supporting developing countries by helping them incorporate and fund sustainability projects that are focused on lowering-carbon emissions. Learn More
Climate Smart Lending Platform
The Climate-Smart Lending Platform (CSLP) uses 3 key tools: climate-smart credit products and process designs; a climate-smart credit scoring tool; and an environmental compliance monitoring tool to assist smallholder farms in sustainable agricultural practices. Learn More
Global Fund for Coral Reefs
The Global Fund for Coral Reefs (GFCR) is a blended finance vehicle to protect and restore coral reefs through investing in and incubating solutions that alleviate pressure on the ocean ecosystem. Learn More
Athelia Climate Fund 1
By investing in sustainable land-use practices, Althelia aims to mitigate the main drivers of deforestation and reduce carbon emissions for the land-use sector; the projects have already helped protect 2 million hectares of critical habitat. Learn More
Land Degradation Neutrality Fund
The Land Degradation Neutrality Fund focuses direct investments into large-scale land restoration programs. These programs will integrate small stakeholders and local communities to ensure resources and provide long-term financial and environmental stability. Learn More
Good Growth Partnership
The Good Growth Partnership works across the supply chain of soy, beef and palm oil to reduce deforestation and advance sustainable development. It also facilitates investment and market-based incentives for sustainable production, analyzing how banks identify and manage deforestation-related risk in their commodity portfolios. Additionally, the partnership supports market awareness for deforestation and provides capacity-building for sustainable land-use practices. The partnership catalyzes policy development and sustainable standards throughout several countries involved in the supply chain to have these standards in place for following food systems. Learn More
Nutritious Foods Financing Facility
The Nutritious Foods Financing Facility (N3F) is an impact-first fund which aims to unlock the potential of local food systems in Sub-Saharan Africa to increase access to nutritious and safe foods in the region, particularly for lower-income populations. Alongside the Fund, the Facility will also provide technical assistance to investee companies to improve their business models and increase their nutritional impact, with consideration of gender equity and environmental sustainability. Funding is sourced from countries all over the world who are collaborating to implement this sustainable development in a large African region. Learn More
These examples of blended finance projects are a few of the many successful cases that aid in the sustainable development of countries. There are a total of 17 UN SDGs which guide the development of blended finance initiatives. In addition to the 11 SDGs addressed, there are 6 other SDGs that can be strategically addressed and implemented through blended finance.
SDG 6: Clean Water and Sanitation
SDG 7: Affordable and Clean Energy
SDG 10: Reduced Inequalities
SDG 12: Responsible Consumption and Production
SDG 16: Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions
SDG 17: Partnerships for the Goals
