International Workshop on Transformational Finance hosted by USAID

Jost Wagner worked for the 4th time with the Social Impact Inc. team on a conference on Transformational Finance as a process consultant and co-facilitator for the 3-day event. To catalyze increased engagement between the development and science and technology communities USAID has launched the Frontiers workshop series, focused on exploring emerging opportunities at the intersection of science & technology, innovation, partnerships, and international development.Fifty years ago, 90 percent of financial flows to developing countries came from official development assistance. Today, that figure is less than 10 percent, and although the percentage of the world population living in extreme poverty has fallen from 53 percent to 18 percent, reducing it even further will take innovation in outreach, financial tools and partnerships. The donor community must work more closely with the financial sector to leverage and integrate all resources for market-driven solutions that support communities. This workshop will focus on understanding the constraints to development investments while highlighting ways to mitigate risk and increase the probability of success. Topics to be explored include: investor concerns and needs in relation to development finance; core development finance instruments in the donor community; recent events and novel tools from the private sector and donor community; and how to include private sector partners and development finance in programmatic activities.