Capital Allocation Series
Over the past fifteen years, pension funds have become one of the most influential institutional investor groups shaping the global impact investing market. Their growing role in emerging markets and developing economies reflects both the scale of assets under management and the structural alignment between long-term pension liabilities and the extended investment horizons required for […]
Alternative Development Trilogy
In 2025, the world’s wealthy countries cut between 9 and 18% of their official development assistance (ODA), following an average of 9% cuts in 2024. These trends are led by the United States, which suddenly dismantled its international development agency, USAID, and exited or slashed funding for numerous international organisations, leaving a 60 billion USD […]
Capital Allocation Series
Insurance companies manage some of the world’s largest pools of long-term capital, yet their participation in impact funds that target emerging markets and developing economies remains highly selective. Unlike banks or development finance institutions, insurers operate under liability-driven investment models shaped by regulatory capital regimes, asset-liability matching requirements and the need for stable, long-dated cash […]
Resource Curse Trilogy
Timor-Leste is the youngest nation in Southeast Asia and, according to the Freedom House Index and V-Dem, it is also the most democratic. Born from a quarter-century of Indonesian occupation that killed roughly a third of the population, the country restored independence in 2002 and immediately faced a question that has undone far wealthier states: […]
Capital Allocation Series
Commercial banks are an established and increasingly sophisticated component of the impact investing ecosystem in emerging markets and developing economies (EMDEs). As regulated financial institutions, their participation in impact funds is shaped by prudential frameworks, balance‑sheet discipline and market‑rate return expectations, which distinguish their role from that of public or philanthropic investors. Rather than acting […]
Resource Curse Trilogy
In the early 2000s, the World Bank embarked on what was arguably the most ambitious experiment in resource revenue management ever attempted. The Chad–Cameroon Petroleum Development and Pipeline Project was designed to prove that, with the right institutional framework, oil wealth could be channelled directly into poverty reduction even in one of the world’s poorest […]
Capital Allocation Series
Development Finance Institutions (DFIs) represent the institutional backbone of the impact investing ecosystem in emerging markets and developing economies (EMDEs). DFIs are institutions established by governments, either individually (bilateral DFIs like FMO, DEG, BII) or collectively through treaties (multilateral DFIs aka MDBs like IFC, AfDB, EBRD, IDB, ADB), with a mandate to promote economic development […]
Resource Curse Trilogy
Venezuela holds the largest proven oil reserves in the world, and, for decades, petroleum revenues financed public spending, social programmes, and infrastructure, positioning the country as one of Latin America’s wealthiest nations and a regional economic powerhouse. Today, Venezuela stands as one of the most dramatic examples of economic collapse in modern history; hyperinflation, prolonged GDP contraction, mass […]
Capital Allocation Series
Philantrophic foundations are among the earliest and most structurally important actors in impact investing in emerging markets and developing economies (EMDEs). Long before impact investing became mainstream, foundations deployed capital into development-oriented funds, social enterprises and intermediaries operating in EMDEs. Unlike other institutional investors, foundations are not constrained by regulatory capital requirements, balance sheet optimisation […]
Capital Allocation Series
Sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) have become increasingly relevant actors in impact investing in emerging markets and developing economies, although their participation differs structurally from that of foundations, DFIs or commercial asset managers. SWFs are state-owned investment vehicles mandated to manage national wealth over long time horizons, often derived from commodity revenues, foreign exchange reserves or […]