Community of Practice on Innovative Finance

What does local fundraising mean and how can Southern organisations take the lead in their own funding? What is blended finance exactly, what is the (business) case behind it and how does that work? Join us on August 29 for yet another informative inspiring meeting of our Community of Practice on Innovative Finance for Development. 

To follow up on a wish expressed by a number of organisations and interested parties, in 2019 The Spindle is organising a series of sessions on how different organisations are working with innovative ways of financing development. Each session will touch upon on one or two innovative financing instruments that are currently being explored, experimented with or implemented. The main goal of these meetings is to exchange on the topic and discuss experiences, success stories, pitfalls and recommendations regarding each financing instrument. The session of August 29 will focus on local fundraising and blended finance.

Local fundraising – Wilde Ganzen
How can local organisations get empowered by learning to raise funds locally and to mobilise other kinds of support? This requires fundamental changes when it comes to the present rules of the ‘development game’. Many Community-Based Organisations (CBOs) and NGOs in the Global South largely depend on foreign funding. Change the Game Academy, an online and classroom training programme of Wilde Ganzen Foundation, aims to channel the responsibility to alleviate poverty to where it ultimately belongs: the countries themselves. Accordingly, it is the local character of this financing instrument which makes the latter innovative. During the session, Wilde Ganzen will take us on a journey: from challenges to opportunities; from dependency towards local sustainability.

Blended finance – Solidaridad
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development defines blended finance as “the strategic use of development finance for the mobilisation of additional finance towards sustainable development in developing countries.” This additional finance generally comes from the private sector. Accordingly, blended finance aims at attracting both commercial and private capital towards projects that benefit society while providing financial return to investors. Solidaridad is piloting business cases for the dairy sector in Tanzania via blended finance, together with Tanga Fresh, leading dairy producer in Tanzania, and Mruazi farm, a commercial livestock management company. This innovative project will be financed partially through loans and partially through subsidies to local partners, with fund managers overseeing the loans and a revolving fund being in charge of the repayments.

Curious to discover more about these two innovative financing instruments and engage in this exchange? Join us!

Sign up here: https://thespindle.org/event/community-of-practice-on-innovative-finance-4/

---