Development finance

The agency’s chairman Fatih Birol is pushing for increased institutional support for lagging investment in developing countries. He wants the issue to be the focus of this year’s COP29 climate talks in Azerbaijan.

The $850m public bond offering has secured backing from BII, IFC and Emerging Africa Infrastructure Fund as anchor investors, helping mobilise over $700m of private capital.

The investment structure ties the pricing of the loan to the achievement of measurable development goals.

The NMB Jamii Bond, Tanzanian NMB Bank’s inaugural sustainability bond, has cross-listed on the London Stock Exchange to drive institutional capital into the country’s climate finance and development projects.

Backed by the UN Environment Programme Finance Institute, the framework offers investors metrics on how to assess the impacts of investing in climate adaptation and resilience.

Following a 10-year low in blended finance investment in 2022, multilateral development banks and development finance institutions are investing in greater sums to tackle climate change. 

The investment will help local businesses in frontier and emerging economies cover the cost of importing key commodities, equipment and machinery, which has risen sharply in recent years.

The transaction marks BII’s first direct financing into Southeast Asia and will help avoid 319,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions per year.

The new indicators are designed to sharpen the focus of the multilateral development bank group on accountability and impact, as well as standardising measurement of progress across its institutions.

GAWA is one of the impact investors backing Indian microfinance institution Sindhuja Microcredit, which has raised $14.5m to extend its services and develop new products, including individual loans to smallholder farmers.