Aid by Sector
HiFi - Harnessing Innovation for Financial Inclusion
UK - Foreign, Commonwealth Development Office (FCDO)
To provide access to poor people to a broad range of financial services such as payments, savings, loans, and insurance by continuing to support piloting new ideas and approaches, and to support technical assistance regulators and commercial players for enhancing industry knowledge and practice about business models, pricing and design of financial products. Access to these services enables consumers to acquire productive assets, invest in health and education and make other purchases that enrich their lives.
FSDA - Financial Sector Deepening Africa Platform
UK - Foreign, Commonwealth Development Office (FCDO)
To drive inclusive growth through a combination of grants and development capital investments that build financial markets and institutions. The programme delivers ambitious multi-country activities and focused, local interventions which seek to strengthen capital markets, promote financial innovation, and help Africa finance a greener future.
Poorest States Inclusive Growth Programme
UK - Foreign, Commonwealth Development Office (FCDO)
To enhance economic value generated for the poor as producers, consumers and employees by investing in impact enterprises. This will benefit up to 30 enterprises and generate employment incomes of at least £10m.To ensure poor and vulnerable people in low income states (especially women) benefit from economic growth through better access to financial services, and investing in private sector projects that will benefit the poor as producers, consumers and employers. This will benefit 12 million low income households with improved access to financial services and upto 30 enterprises in attracting additional investments worth £56 million.
GFP - Global Finance Programme
UK - Foreign, Commonwealth Development Office (FCDO)
Leverages the UK’s unique position as the world’s leading financial centre to increase access to finance for firms and individuals where beneficiaries are in developing countries, promoting shared prosperity through inclusive economic growth overseas, and the development of new markets in developing countries.
Supporting Inclusive Growth in Somalia (SIGS)
UK - Foreign, Commonwealth Development Office (FCDO)
SIGS programme is the UK’s flagship economic development programme in Somalia. Designed as a flexible and adaptive programme it will provide an immediate response to Covid19. It now has a stronger focus on remittances, supporting UK political leadership in this area, and, accelerated support to key Micro, Small and Medium Sized Enterprise (MSME) sectors including domestic food production and marketing. SIGS will deliver activities to 1. Develop and diversify businesses in approx. 4 high-value sectors. 2. Stimulate investment through developing the financial sector and related policy and or regulatory capacity. 3. Develop the evidence base on inclusive, sustainable, economic development in Somalia. SIGS will provide an essential policy and influencing resource for UK leadership on HIPC debt relief and or the associated reforms, including on the financial sector and counter terrorist financing.
IMPACT - Investment to fund innovative solutions for development and help develop sustainable investment markets
UK - Foreign, Commonwealth Development Office (FCDO)
Investment to fund innovative solutions for development and help develop sustainable investment markets that work for the poor. FCDO is aiming to catalyse the market for impact investment in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. Impact investments are those which have both a financial and social return by benefiting poor and low-income people through improved access to affordable goods and services and income generating opportunities. The Impact Programme aims to promote solutions to the barriers and constraints that are preventing Impact Investing from scaling up in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. The programme seeks to foster a significant increase in the volume and distribution of impact investment, reaching the underserved as consumers, suppliers, distributors or employees, in hard to reach, difficult geographies, and through innovative business models.
Climate Finance Accelerator (CFA)
UK - Department for Energy Security and Net Zero
To accelerate the transformation of developing countries’ Nationally Determined Contributions into a pipeline of bankable projects, which have the potential to attract investment at scale from the private sector. The CFA will achieve this by facilitating ‘transaction-oriented’ workshops, convening project developers, policy makers and capital market players from participant countries with UK-based green finance experts.
Risk Pools Programme (RPP)
UK - Foreign, Commonwealth Development Office (FCDO)
To support a parametric (index-based) weather risk insurance pool that will provide participating African countries with predictable, quick-disbursing funds with which to implement pre-defined contingency response plans in the case of a drought.
Disaster Risk Insurance
UK - Foreign, Commonwealth Development Office (FCDO)
To improve the resilience of the private sector in poor countries to natural disasters by improving access to insurance products. By supporting the development of a market for private sector disaster risk insurance in developing countries, the project will sustainably help strengthen resilience, mitigate the effects of climate change and supporting economic development through private sector growth.
Global Risk Financing Programme [GRiF]
UK - Foreign, Commonwealth Development Office (FCDO)
To save lives and reduce the impacts of shocks, like droughts, hurricanes and floods through enabling earlier and more effective response and faster recovery. It provides finance to support governments and humanitarian agencies to use risk financing instruments, like insurance and contingent credit, to access more rapid finance in emergencies, and to strengthen preparedness of local systems for disaster response and recovery. It will focus on disasters, but will develop over time to cover a wider range of risks, including famine.
Centre for Disaster Protection (CDP)
UK - Foreign, Commonwealth Development Office (FCDO)
To protect poor and vulnerable people, save lives and help developing countries to get back on their feet more quickly after a disaster by working with governments to strengthen planning, embed early action, and use “risk financing” tools like insurance and contingent credit to finance more cost-effective, rapid and reliable response to emergencies. It aims to empower governments to build resilience to natural disasters and climate change, and take ownership of their risks, with more assistance delivered through pre-financed government-led systems. Funded by the UK Government Prosperity Fund until April 2021.
SME - Small Medium Enterprise Initiative
UK - Foreign, Commonwealth Development Office (FCDO)
Support through the International Finance Corporation scaling up of commercial banks' lending to Small and Medium Enterprises in DFID targeted developing countries in Africa and Asia, with a focus on FCAS. The Initiative will support scaling up of lending to small and medium enterprises through partnership with mainstream commercial banks, leasing companies and other non-banking finance companies in DFID priority countries. The Initiative will provide banks with risk sharing mechanisms, technical assistance and advisory services as well as improved credit history information and referencing in support of scaling up their financing to small and medium enterprises.
India –UK Economic Cooperation Programme (ODA)
UK - Foreign, Commonwealth Development Office (FCDO)
This is a 3 year programme which will help India to implement its proposed economic reforms, climate and infrastructure development priorities, with a view to support its long-term growth objectives. It will provide expertise and support, primarily to Ministry of Finance, with some assistance expected to be provided to a small number of state governments and other Indian agencies. The programme will engage in areas where the UK is well-placed to make the greatest strategic impact: (i) private finance and reforms to the business environment; (ii) tax revenue mobilisation and public finance; and (iii) high quality, low carbon and resilient infrastructure. It will provide up to £1.5m ODA in technical cooperation in 2023/24, with funding allocations for the following two years to be confirmed, subject to a maximum of £4.5 million over 3 years.
MOBILIST - Mobilising Institutional Capital Through Listed Product Structures
UK - Foreign, Commonwealth Development Office (FCDO)
FCDO seeks to support the development of new products that have the ambition to list on major and local exchanges, and by doing so, engage new sources of investment and new investors, to help bridge the SDG financing gap, estimated by the UN to total $2.5 trillion p.a. ODA flows alone will not meet the needs of developing countries, and new sources of private investment will be essential if the SDGs are to be met by 2030. The programme will work with UK-based financial service providers and providers across FCDO priority countries and more widely, working to help mobilise more capital to reach the hardest places, and where the needs are greatest.
UK-Central Asia Green Inclusive Growth (GIG) Fund
UK - Foreign, Commonwealth Development Office (FCDO)
UK-Central Asia Green Inclusive Growth (GIG) Fund will harness UK’s convening power by establishing a platform for future increased green investment into Central Asia, combining UK’s diplomatic, development and commercial levers. GIG will build on UK’s extensive expertise in establishing private equity/venture capital (PE/VC) funds for development worldwide. By working closely with IFIs and developing local institutions, GIG will invest in targeted business advisory support and offer green growth finance to those firms with the highest potential.
Climate Smart Jobs Programme
UK - Foreign, Commonwealth Development Office (FCDO)
To strengthen the climate smart agribusinesses, creating jobs, support climate smart land management & services and to remove barriers that stop businesses getting deals.
Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures programme
Department for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs
Defra is one of the largest funders of the global, market-led, and science-based Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) initiative. The TNFD recommendations and supporting implementation guidance enable organisations to assess, report, and act on their evolving nature-related risks, opportunities, impacts, and dependencies, with the ultimate aim of supporting a shift in global financial flows towards nature-positive outcomes and achieving the goals of the Global Biodiversity Framework. Defra contributed £2,826,855 to support the TNFD initiative’s two-year open innovation ‘design and development’ phase, which culminated in the launch of the final TNFD corporate reporting recommendations on nature-related risk management and disclosure in September 2023 at New York Climate Week. From November 2021 – November 2022, Defra also contributed £1,675,000 to fund a TNFD African Voice pilot programme, with Financial Sector Deepening Africa (FSD Africa) acting as the delivery partner. This funding was used to secure engagement by African financial institutions, governments, and central banks, with the aim of ensuring that the TNFD framework is fit for purpose in African contexts. In addition, this funding supported the production of a report examining the materiality of nature-related risks for financial institutions in African contexts. At COP28 in December 2023, the Defra Secretary of State announced an additional £2 million funding to support the TNFD initiative’s uptake phase, which is focused on encouraging and enabling voluntary market adoption across sectors and geographies, and supporting efforts to address the knowledge, capacity building and data needs of market participants.
A contribution to Financial Sector Deepening Africa (FSDA) the United Nations Development Programme Biodiversity Finance Initiative (Biofin) to support delivery of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework.
Department for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs
The programme will support low and lower-middle income countries to grow their economies in ways that help to protect and restore their natural capital and so drive sustainable economic development. It is designed to provide practical support to governments, businesses, and financial institutions to integrate nature into their economic and financial decision-making, understand and manage nature-related risks, and capitalise on growing opportunities to invest in their natural assets. As such, it will support low and lower-middle income countries to transition to nature positive, net zero economies and so protect the poorest communities. Through an integrated set of activities, the programme will deliver the following outcomes: • Private Sector Disclosure Readiness: private sector actors in low and lower-middle income countries – including financial institutions, businesses, and policy-makers - will have the tools they need to understand and manage nature-related financial risk. In particular, the programme will ensure that key institutions have the tools and capacity to respond to growing demand to disclose nature-related financial risk. • Integrating nature at country level: governmental and regulatory decision-makers in low and lower-middle income countries will have the knowledge, skills and data to design and implement policies and programmes that will help to manage nature-related risks, unlock new nature markets, and rebuild natural capital. • Action Plans for Nature: partner governments will develop clear and comprehensive plans to finance the protection and restoration of nature. These plans will act as platforms to mobilise and guide both public and private financial flows. • Evidence Sharing Mechanisms on Nature: better evidence will be available to, and used by, decision makers in low and lower middle-income countries to guide their work. The programme will help to build the evidence about how to best integrate consideration of the natural environment into economic and financial decision making. It will also help decision-makers in governments and the private sector to access and use that evidence easily by building communities of practice and robust approaches to sharing knowledge and information. The outcomes will support the implementation of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KMGBF), agreed at the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) meeting COP15. As protection and restoration of critical ecosystems is also critical to tackling climate change, it will also support the UK goal to keep global temperature rises within 1.5c degrees.
Green Growth Nepal
UK - Foreign, Commonwealth Development Office (FCDO)
GGN will increase green, resilient, and inclusive growth by expanding investment in green industries and services, improving climate-resilient infrastructure, and strengthening sustainable economic policy and facilitating economic opportunities across Nepal. This will create prosperity while protecting the environment and the natural assets that underpin sustainable growth in Nepal.
ESRC-FAPESP Creating competitive advantage by serving marginalised communities: UK multinationals and inclusive development in Latin America
DEPARTMENT FOR BUSINESS, ENERGY & INDUSTRIAL STRATEGY
"Multinational Enterprises (MNEs) are often blamed for only serving the elite population when they operate in emerging markets. In addition, they require local governments to create infrastructure and arrangements that can support their activities in the respective country, thus diverting resources from underserved communities within the country towards serving the elite population. The purpose of this study is to explore how multinationals from advanced markets can contribute to the achievement of the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals by addressing the needs of underserved populations and marginalised communities in emerging markets, while also providing expectations of long term economic return to their shareholders. Considering the increased awareness of doing good while doing well, MNEs are beginning to realise that profit maximization is not the only route to success. They need to improve their image and demonstrate that their existence is beneficial for the society in general, that is a more long-term route to achieve a competitive advantage. We intend to uncover the mechanisms and actions required by these companies to serve marginalised communities and to create a positive image in the society. To do so, we build from stakeholder theory, social entrepreneurship and value creation literature, and offer a qualitative cross-country study in Latin America. We will focus specifically on the experience of UK multinationals in Brazil and Colombia. We will collect data through focus groups and in-depth interviews with multiple actors (such as multinationals' executives, NGOs, underserved consumers, community leaders, local government representatives, investment promotion organizations, and local entrepreneurs). We will triangulate by comparing data from focus groups, interviews, and secondary sources to draw trustworthy conclusions. Further, we will use pattern matching and case comparison to analyse and make sense of data and draw conclusions. To address this complex research question, resources and expertise from the UK and Brazil will be combined. Principal and co-investigators have a successful track record in conducting research on MNEs impact in developing countries, on local firms, on engaging in training for managers, and working directly with policy makers. Key investigators are well-known international business scholars and experts with numerous relevant high-level publications. The UK team will contribute with theoretical framing, sharing research and training skills with local researchers, taking the lead in the analysis of data, producing actionable documents for stakeholders, and drafting academic publications. The Brazilian team will provide indepth knowledge of the research context, drawing on wider networks with businesses locally and close engagement with local societies while collecting data. As results we will provide guidelines for multinationals and other stakeholders as to how inclusive development can be achieved." COVID-19
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