This week: impact investors unite against US foreign aid freeze; sustainability gets lukewarm embrace at Paris AI summit; concerns raised about UK government’s social investment advisory group members; and more.
As Donald Trump pulls the plug on the world’s largest aid donor, the impact investing community warns the existing funding gap to meet the SDGs will widen by billions of dollars. But is China now poised to step forward?
Yes, blended finance has its flaws, but Mariana Mazzucato’s critical UN briefing creates a misleading narrative around its role, says Joan Larrea of Convergence. The approach’s real promise is not as a gap-filler, but a market enabler.
Award-winning economist Mariana Mazzucato says blended finance is not the promised ‘silver bullet’ in scathing UN policy briefing which argues it fails to mobilise enough private investment to meet the SDGs, while financing needs grow.