This Brief seeks to understand how donor governments have deployed or participated in blended finance to date. According to the Convergence database, donor governments have participated in half (56%) of blended finance transactions captured. Top donor governments, by number of direct commitments, have been the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Netherlands.
Donor governments have committed various types of financing (e.g., grants, guarantees) to blended finance solutions, both directly and indirectly (e.g., indirectly through multilateral funds or organizations). Grants have been the most common instrument deployed by donor governments and multilateral entities, with approximately half of those grants for technical assistance.
In the last few years, donor governments have started to proactively build on blended finance approaches deployed to date, refining key policies and approaches. Donor governments have an important role to play in developing and scaling blended finance solutions that have the ability to support measurable and sustainable impact.