CPI at the 4th International Conference on Financing for Development (FFD4)
The Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development (FFD4) presents a critical opportunity to reform financing at all levels, from overhauling the international financial architecture to addressing the barriers that are holding back the urgent investment needed to achieve the SDGs. The CPI team will contribute to this agenda by speaking at and participating in several key events throughout the week.
*All times in CET
Moving to the Trillions: Catalytic Strategies to Increase Development Finance
Monday, 30 June; 12:30 – 14:00
Room 22
CPI’s Global Managing Director, Barbara Buchner, will speak at the following event:
This side event, organized by the Shamba Centre for Food & Climate, will explore innovative finance models to increase the catalytic potential of overseas development assistance and scale up blended finance for sustainable development, particularly for SMEs, small-scale farmers, landowners, and nature-based solution providers who face major barriers to accessing capital. Despite longstanding goals to mobilize private finance at scale, progress has fallen short, and as the cost of achieving the SDGs rises in a world increasingly breaching planetary boundaries, donors are under pressure to maximize impact. The discussion will focus on strategies to deliver greater value for money and support a just and sustainable transition, emphasizing the need for long-term, patient, and affordable capital that aligns with fluctuating expenditure and revenue realities.
Speakers will include:
Oshani Perera, Shamba Centre for Food & Climate
Elsa Olivetti, Food and Agriculture Organisation
Jolie Schwarz, Gates Foundation
Maurizio Navarra, Global Donor Platform for Rural Development
Jean-Philippe de Schrevel, Partner Oryx Impact, founder, BlueOrchard & Bamboo Capital
Jake Cusack, CrossBoundary Group
Laura Munoz Perez, UN Capital Development Fund
Chris Clubb, Convergence
Innovations and Technical Assistance for Sustainable Finance
Tuesday, 1 July; 10:30 – 12:00
Room 17
CPI’s Global Managing Director, Barbara Buchner, will moderate the following event:
In a resource-constrained global context, FfD4 offers a critical opportunity to enhance the efficiency of development financing, with a focus on strengthening Public Development Banks (PDBs). As key drivers of sustainable development, PDBs, ranging from multilateral to local institutions and collectively managing $23 trillion in assets, face challenges in scaling innovative solutions due to limited technical and financial capacity, particularly among smaller institutions. This side event, building on the Finance in Common (FiCS) initiative, will explore how targeted innovation and capacity building can unlock the full potential of PDBs, MDBs, and DFIs to bridge financing gaps, support cross-border development challenges, and accelerate progress toward the SDGs.
Catalytic equity as a tool to unlock investment in EMDEs
Tuesday, 1 July; 12:30 – 14:00
Room Madrid C
CPI’s Global Managing Director, Barbara Buchner, will moderate the following event:
This panel will explore how scaling equity and catalytic equity investments, defined as submarket investments in terms of risk, return, or time horizon, can unlock greater private sector financing in emerging markets and developing economies (EMDEs). Speakers will share early insights from ongoing research led by Allied Climate Partners, GFANZ, and Climate Policy Initiative, with support from Wood Mackenzie. The work aims to quantify the volume of equity and catalytic equity needed to support the energy transition in EMDEs, including the gap between projected equity flows under a most likely scenario and those aligned with net zero targets or country pledges. It will also highlight the potential of well-targeted catalytic equity to mobilize additional private capital and provide actionable recommendations for MDBs, DFIs, and other stakeholders on how to scale catalytic equity deployment and maximize its impact.
Speakers will include:
Clarisa de Franco, Senior Advisor, Allied Climate Partners
Dr Mahmoud Mohieldin, Chair, GFANZ Africa Network
Phillipe Valahu, CEO, Private Infrastructure Development Group
Alfonso Garcia Mora, Regional Vice President, Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean, IFC
Lucy Heintz, Partner, Head of Energy Infrastructure, Actis
Dana Barsky, Group Head of Sustainability Strategy & Net Zero, Standard Chartered
Sir Danny Alexander, CEO, HSBC Infrastructure Finance
Reshaping the international Finance Architecture: the importance of public development banks in scaling up the private investment for sustainable infrastructure
Tuesday, 1 July; 16:30 – 18:00
Room 7
CPI’s Global Managing Director, Barbara Buchner, will speak at the following event:
As the world faces a USD 15 trillion infrastructure investment gap by 2040, addressing this shortfall is essential to delivering sustainable, inclusive, and resilient development. This session, convened by the French Ministry of the Economy and Meridiam in collaboration with the Finance in Common Summit, IDFC, FAST-Infra Group, and the Global Infrastructure Facility, will focus on mobilising resources for infrastructure where it is needed most, especially in rapidly urbanising developing and emerging economies. Through candid dialogue and knowledge sharing, participants will explore how public development banks can help scale private investment, support international financial reform, and contribute to the goals of the SDGs and the Paris Agreement. The session will showcase innovative financing instruments and partnerships, drawing on experiences from a wide range of stakeholders including public and private investors, governments, UN agencies, civil society, think tanks, and philanthropies, with the aim of advancing a more sustainable and inclusive global financial system.
Accelerating the Shift – From Dialogue to Action
Wednesday, 2 July; 8:30 – 10:30
Room 24
CPI’s Global Managing Director, Barbara Buchner, will moderate the following event:
Organized by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), this side event will present key findings and practical recommendations from the High-Level Friends Group Private Climate Finance for Development, which brings together leaders from government, development finance, think tanks, and the private sector to mobilize private climate finance in emerging and developing economies. Drawing on insights from the group’s Acceleration Dialogues held in Kigali, Rabat, Bogotá, and Washington, the session will explore how National Public Development Banks can play a stronger role in mobilizing domestic resources and private investment for climate action. It will highlight both the potential and the persistent barriers these banks face, such as high capital costs, currency risks, and underdeveloped financial markets, offering concrete proposals to inform FfD4 and accelerate progress from dialogue to implementation.
Experts Roundtable Discussion on Local Financing for the SDGs – Taking stock and paving the road after FfD4
Wednesday, 2 July; 9:30 – 11:00
Seville City Hall
CPI Manager, Kristiina Yang, will participate in this event.
This FfD4 side event, co-organized by UNEP, UNDP, and UNICEF under the Local2030 Coalition, brings together global experts, local leaders, and development partners to explore practical solutions for scaling up local financing. The session will spotlight tools such as Integrated Local Financing Frameworks (ILFFs), and feature a dialogue on how to empower local governments as co-creators and financiers of sustainable development.
Scaling Up Sustainable Development Financing: A Coherent Public Development Banks System
Wednesday, 2 July; 10:30 – 12:00
Room 17
CPI’s Global Managing Director, Barbara Buchner, will moderate the following event:
Based on the work carried on by Finance in Common (FiCS) to serve the Finance Track of the G20 South African Presidency of G20, this event will present the recommendations from the June 2025 draft report jointly developed by FiCS with Climate Policy Initiative (CPI) and the African Development Bank (AfDB), with support from the International Development Finance Club (IDFC) for enhanced interoperability of the development finance system. This research will inform Priority 1 of the G20 Sustainable Finance Working Group (SFWG). Through examples of successful collaborations, the report will propose recommendations to further PDBs integration and design a more inclusive development finance system, including greater co-financing.
Speakers will include:
HE. Enoch Godongwana, Minister of Finance of South Africa
Ambroise Fayolle, Vice President of the European Investment Bank
Boitumelo Mosako, CEO, Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA)
Sim Tshabalala, CEO, Standard Bank Group
From Policy Priorities to Financial Close – Bridging the Pipeline-to-Finance Gap
Wednesday, 2 July; 14:30 – 16:00
Room 16
UNDP is advancing its efforts to bridge climate projects with financiers and investors through several initiatives. At the UNDP Rome Centre for Climate and Energy, it launched PISTA, a $30 million technical assistance facility for climate mitigation and adaptation that helps projects strengthen their technical and financial viability and supports engagement with capital providers, with plans to scale the facility to $50 million by the end of the year. In 2024, under the Italian G7 Presidency, UNDP was also tasked with implementing Energy for Growth in Africa, a related initiative focused on clean energy that is now launching in 10 African countries. As part of this work, UNDP will host a side event at FFD4 in Seville titled “From Policy Priorities to Financial Close – Bridging the Pipeline-to-Finance Gap,” bringing together project developers and development finance institutions to discuss the challenges of deploying and accessing climate finance in emerging and developing economies, particularly in Africa.
CPI’s Global Managing Director, Barbara Buchner, will provide opening remarks at this event.
Accelerating sustainable urban development through local action and global partnerships
Thursday, 3 July; 10:30 – 12:00
Room 19
CPI Manager Kristiina Yang will moderate one of the sessions at this event:
Organized by city networks and initiatives including ICLEI, GCoM, FMDV, C40 Cities Finance Facility, the City Climate Finance Gap Fund, the Covenant of Mayors Sub-Saharan Africa, and the Cities Climate Finance Leadership Alliance (CCFLA), this side event will address persistent barriers faced by subnational governments in accessing finance for sustainable urban development. Despite their critical role in delivering on global goals, cities and regions, particularly in EMDEs, often struggle to fund their development plans. Through collaboration with project preparation facilities such as the Gap Fund and the Cities Finance Facility, these actors have helped develop pipelines of high-impact, locally grounded projects that align with investor expectations.
The event will feature expert panel discussions, case studies, and interactive dialogue highlighting successful initiatives from Sub-Saharan Africa to Latin America. These examples will demonstrate how cooperation between local governments, national stakeholders, and international institutions can unlock urban finance and drive inclusive and resilient development. The session will present practical recommendations and best practices for scaling urban finance through cross-sector collaboration, addressing key FfD4 priorities such as financial innovation, multilevel partnerships, and reform of the global financial architecture grounded in local solutions.
From Pledges to Progress: Presenting the Climate Finance Reform Compass
Thursday, 3 July; 10:30 – 12:00
Room 7
Co-hosted by Climate Policy Initiative, Children’s Investment Fund Foundation, and the Global Climate Finance Centre, this session will offer an opportunity to hear from leading experts on climate finance reform. It will highlight how CPI’s Climate Finance Reform Compass (the Compass) helps chart a path to make the international financial architecture fit-for-purpose, driving investment for climate action.
Explore how the Compass can enhance accountability and inform the Baku-Belem Roadmap in preparation for COP30 and other key international efforts.
