An initiative co-sponsored by the Results for Development Institute (R4D) and the Corporación Andina de Fomento (CAF) has won top honors at the Marketplace on Innovative Financial Solutions for Development, a competition hosted by the Agence Française de Développement (AFD), the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and the World Bank.

The project idea, conceived by R4D’s David Stevens and called “Affinity MacroFinance: Financial Guarantees for the Developing World (AMF)” was one of five winners chosen from 800 contestants. Each of the five projects also received a cash award of $100,000.

“We are thrilled and honored to be named a winner in the competition,” said AMF’s creator and CEO David C. Stevens. “AFD, the World Bank and Gates deserve credit for creating and sponsoring the Marketplace program. For AMF, it’s a propitious start to our ‘March to Launch.’”

Affinity MacroFinance is an initiative to finance health, education, small and medium enterprises, micro lending, infrastructure and other forms of development by providing local AAA guarantees to bond investors and banks in 80 emerging nations – running the gamut from low-income countries like Rwanda and Vietnam to middle-income Peru and Latvia. These guarantees can dramatically lower the cost of development finance, generating funds for projects that otherwise might not attain access to capital markets.

Another important benefit of AMF would be to expand local financing capacity, for example, by harnessing the nearly $1 trillion accumulated in emerging nations’ pension funds. More local financing would help reduce dependence on overseas aid during a time of global economic constraint and would avoid the often dangerous mismatch of foreign currency-denominated debt with local currency-denominated projects.

AMF aims to raise $300 million of social investor capital in 2010 and generate up to $12 billion in financings from this capital base in its early years of operation. To help illustrate the objectives and projected outcomes of this initiative, the AMF team developed a fictional 2016 Annual Report, imagining the kinds of achievements a successful AMF launch could accomplish in the first 7 years. Click here to read the “AFFINITY MACROFINANCE 2016: THE YEAR IN REVIEW” report.

Upon receiving the award, R4D President David de Ferranti stated, “We are very excited about working with David Stevens and his team on this project, and we are delighted to have received such strong support from the CAF. Affinity MacroFinance is the embodiment of R4D’s mission to spark innovative ideas that in turn catalyze actions for development.”

Attached File(s): 

Affinity MacroFinance 2016_The Year In Review.pdf