The World Economic Forum’s Humanitarian and Resilience Investing (HRI) Initiative, together with its partners, yesterday, in New York, made a global call to action to respond to the systemic challenges faced by the 2 billion people living in poverty and insecurity across the world.
To this end, the Forum called on humanitarian and development organizations, donors and governments, development finance institutions, foundations, investors, investment facilitators and business leaders to join forces to mobilize $10 billion in commercial and catalytic capital to enable 1,000 local and international businesses in frontier markets to scale their operations by 2030.
WEF, noting that providing immediate and urgent relief will always remain necessary in acute crises; however, stressed the need to complement established crisis response efforts with a sustainable market-based approach.
Market-driven solutions can strengthen local economies, respond to the systemic challenges faced by underserved communities living in extreme poverty, and reduce overall aid dependency, it added.
We must respond to the systemic challenges faced by the world’s most vulnerable communities in a way that is sustainable and inclusive.
Systemic challenges
“We must respond to the systemic challenges faced by the world’s most vulnerable communities in a way that is sustainable and inclusive,” said Mirek Dušek, Managing Director, World Economic Forum.
“Unlocking the potential in frontier markets hinges on connecting the dots,” said Peter Maurer, Co-Chair, Humanitarian and Resilience Investing (HRI) Initiative. “Partnerships across sectors are critical to achieve this.”
“We see enormous untapped potential in frontier markets, which remain the world’s most underinvested markets. The World Bank has scaled up significantly its financing – especially concessional resources – to support vulnerable communities living in these areas,” said Axel van Trotsenburg, Senior Managing Director, World Bank.
“What we need to provide is capital flow. We need to give the local entrepreneurs tools and systems to provide their services and products in local markets,” said Anne Beathe Tvinnereim, Minister of International Development of Norway.
The call to action aims to better integrate collaboration between key stakeholder groups along the investment continuum, focus on impact-adjusted returns, and increase transparency and measurement of financial and impact performance.
Up to 50 organizations including the African Development Bank (AfDB), International Finance Corporation (IFC), United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF), United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), United States Government, have endorsed this open call to action.
The HRI Initiative and partners will identify and announce actionable steps to support investment opportunities and mobilize capital to scale these opportunities. The initiative welcomes more organizations to join the call to action and collectively deliver on its ambitious goal.
