Blended Finance Landscape Review

Blended finance - the strategic use of public and philanthropic resources to mobilize private capital to achieve development outcomes - holds tremendous promise to finance critical development priorities in USAID’s partner countries and support their journeys to self-reliance. This report presents the findings of a stocktaking process the USAID CAPx (Capital Impact Exchange) Activity conducted from September-December 2019. CAPx is designed to advance the knowledge base, generate and analyze evidence, and adaptively inform USAID’s efforts to catalyze private investment for development outcomes. The primary purpose of the stocktaking was to survey the landscape for blended finance at USAID and, in so doing, provide a learning foundation for CAPx as it embarks on the development of a Blended Finance Learning Agenda. During the stocktaking, CAPx conducted 31 key informant interviews with staff across USAID Operating Units, USAID projects, and other stakeholders; reviewed 100 reports and documents from USAID and other sources; and analyzed two recent surveys USAID conducted to gauge USAID staff familiarity with, and opinions of, various Private Sector Engagement (PSE) topics.