Development finance and blending

Achieving the United Nations sustainable development goals (SDGs) requires a massive increase in investment. The concept of ‘blended finance’ has been developed to describe a set of approaches and mechanisms that seek to mobilise additional investment towards the SDGs, given that existing sources of finance, including grant donors, international financial institutions (IFIs) and development finance institutions (DFIs) are insufficient. The private sector is widely seen as the most feasible source of additional large-scale funding.

ADE has a track record in evaluations and studies in development finance and blending. We keep abreast of the rapid changes within the global development finance landscape, and actively contribute to international thinking on the roles of public, private and blended finance.

ADE is Consortium Leader for the EU Framework Contract on Innovative Financing for Development (DG INTPA FWC SEA 2023 Lot 8).

Read more Projects overview

Key services include

  • Evaluation of investment facilities and funds, and of blended finance mechanisms
  • Evaluation of financial inclusion policies and programmes
  • Knowledge-sharing on development finance topics through technical assistance (including training), studies, and seminars and conferences
  • Studies on specific finance instruments, many of which are concessional (loans, risk capital, guarantees, factoring, leasing, and other innovative instruments, grants, principally in the form of project investment, interest rate subsidies or technical assistance)

Project examples

  • FMO – Evaluation on Responsible Exits (ongoing)
  • FMO – Evaluation of the Mobilising Finance for Forests program (ongoing)
  • NL – Evaluation of 2SCALE, an incubator programme managing PPPs in the agri-food sector (ongoing)
  • AfDB – 10 Country Strategy and Program Evaluations (CSPEs) for the African Development Bank (since 2015)
  • AfDB – 3 Thematic Evaluations on Fragility, Renewable Energy, and Agricultural Value Chans (2021-2023)
  • EU – TA on regional infrastructure projects and blended finance projects in Central Africa (2022-2024)
  • EU – Evaluation of EU cooperation with the World Bank (2024)
  • NL/FMO– Evaluation of the Building Prospects and Access to Energy Fund (2024)
  • OECD – Study on Uses of Core Concepts in Blended Finance and Implications for Evaluation (2021)
  • SES – Evaluation of Belgium’s International Climate Finance (2021)
  • EIB – Mid-term and End-term evaluations of the EU-ACP Investment Facility (2013 and 2020)
  • EU – Final Evaluation of the EU Support to the Facility for Euro-Mediterranean Investment Partnership (2019)
  • NL – Evaluation of the Dutch Infrastructure Development Fund managed by FMO (2018)
  • EU – Evaluation of EU Blending, covering the EU’s seven regional investment facilities and projects by EBRD, EIB, AFD and KfW (2016)
  • EU – Training of numerous EU staff on Blending (through the MKS programme 2015-2019