Investing in frontier economies – what can public-private collaboration achieve?

The term ‘fragility’ is used to describe various complex challenges including protracted conflicts, weak state capacity, and vulnerability to climate-related shocks.

Development progress has been the hardest in these contexts. But the landscape is changing, with new development players emerging – notably in the private sector. Private capital is reaching frontier economies (those in low- and middle-income countries impacted by so-called fragility), fuelled by an impact investing market of more than $1 trillion.

Ahead of next week’s World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos, this episode examines who is shaping this new vision of development in frontier markets. Guests dissect the innovative approaches and collaborations needed to strengthen development efforts in areas affected by conflict and instability.

Guests 

• Sara Pantuliano (host), Chief Executive, ODI Global
• Jake Cusack, Co-Founder and Managing Partner, CrossBoundary Group
• Heike Harmgart, Managing Director for Sub-Saharan Africa, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD)
• Andrej Kirn, Head of International Organisations and Humanitarian Agenda, World Economic Forum
• Surer Mohamed, Research Fellow, Politics and Governance programme, ODI Global
  
  

Related resources

• Humanitarian and Resilience Investing Initiative (World Economic Forum)
  
  
• Mobilising European Institutional Investors into Emerging Markets and Developing Economies: three critical areas to address (Insight, ODI Global)
  
  
• Trillions or billions? Reassessing the potential for European institutional investment in emerging markets and developing economies (Report, ODI Global)
  
  
• Blended finance’s broken promise and how to fix it (Event, ODI Global)
  
  
• Trillions or billions? The Future of European Institutional Investment in Emerging Markets and Developing Economies (Event video, ODI Global)