Objective

This session is intended to provide participants with an awareness and understanding of the trends and emerging issues in within the climate finance ecosystem and will reflect on the impact of various blended instruments deployed to share or shift risks while deploying climate finance.[SY1]

Background

This webinar will present findings from Convergence’s recently published State of Blended Finance Report: Climate Edition. This year, for the first time, Convergence released two State of Blended Finance reports. This second report, with a focus on climate, complements the 2024 State of Blended Finance which covered the overall blended finance market and was released earlier this year.

The report found that Sub-Saharan Africa attracts 41% of the climate-blended finance transactions mostly to energy, agriculture, and financial services, directly or via multi-region mandates. Unsurprisingly, 5 out of top 10 countries in blended finance deal count league table are in Sub-Saharan Africa. However, risks (real and perceived) and relatively low ticket sizes still impede private capital mobilization despite extensive investment opportunities, hence the increasing the relevance of blended finance in these contexts.

The webinar will cover data, trends, insights, and recommendations from the report with a special focus on the Africa region. The panel will reflect on the successes and challenges so far, and share insights on how more private capital can be mobilized for climate finance in Africa.

Flow

• Welcome and Opening Remarks – Aakif Merchant, Director, Convergence – 5 mins
• Overview from Convergence on the recently released State of Blended Finance report – Basil Kandaya, Senior Associate, Convergence – 10 mins
• Panel discussion moderated by Aakif Merchant featuring Dr. Frank Aswani (Africa Venture Philanthropy Alliance) and Thiery Watrin (Government of Rwanda) – 30 mins
• Audience Q/A – 15 mins