Capital Musings

Esther Pan Sloane is speaking with Eva Yazhari, CEO of the Beyond Capital fund, co-host of the Beyond Capital podcast, founder of the Conscious Investor magazine, and author of the book The Good Your Money Can Do. In this episode, we talk about the biggest obstacles to investors considering investing in the least developed countries. We also review the concept of conscious leadership and stakehold...

Saadia Madsbjerg, former Managing Director of The Rockefeller Foundation and co-author with Judith Rodin, former president The Rockefeller Foundation president, of Making Money Moral: How a New Wave of Visionaries is Linking Purpose and Profit speaks about how The Rockefeller Foundation helped start the impact investing industry and her views on the rapid growth and future of the field.&...

The UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA) and the UN Capital Development Fund recently a released a critical joint publication that provides guidance to local and national governments on how to manage assets relating to public infrastructure investments. Ahead of this year's Finance for Development Forum (FfD), we invited four contributors of the handbook to the podcast to discuss...

Sabine Mensah, UNCDF regional digital lead for West Africa, explains how digitization benefits entrepreneurs, consumers, governments and small businesses across the region. 

Ambassador Perks Ligoya, Permanent Representative of Malawi to the United Nations and leader of the LDC Group, explains why foreign direct investment, official development assistance, innovative financing mechanisms and productive capacity are critical for helping the world’s Least Developed Countries achieve their SDG ambitions.

Esther Pan Sloane speaks with Jenny Abramson of Rethink Impact about the opportunity presented by women-led businesses; her investment thesis; what’s holding up progress; and what needs to be done to get more funds flowing to female founders.

Michael J. McCord of Milliman and Abhisheik Dhawan of UNCDF discuss the potential for innovative insurance products to reduce climate risk and help increase financing for developing country cities. 

On February 15th, UNCDF announced that Preeti Sinha has commenced her tenure as its Executive Secretary. In taking the helm as the highest-ranking leader in the organization, she will lead UNCDF in its mandate to unlock public and private finance for the LDCs. With 30 years of global experience spanning investment and development finance, Executive Sinha will lead UNCDF's effort to harness the unt...

#9 Faith, Social Justice and Money with Marvin Owens—Getting Resources to the Communities that Need them Most. In this episode, Esther Pan Sloane speaks with the Reverend Marvin Owens, Chief Engagement Officer for Impact Shares, about the NAACP, community organizing, the role of faith in advocating for social justice, and why economic independence is critical for minority communities.

Investing in Nature’s Capital: How Capital Markets Can Value Natural Resources and Help LDCs Alejandro Litovsky, CEO and Founder of Earth Security, discusses how creating ways to invest in natural ecosystems can transform capital markets and help LDCs reach their economic and development goals.

About 20 years ago, UNCDF's footprint in Uganda consisted of one person sitting at a single desk in another agency's office. Today, that one person—Jenifer Bukohke Wakuhugu—is the Deputy Head of UNCDF's Uganda Office, our largest in-country footprint with approximately 40 people. And Jenifer continues to teach UNCDF how to "Remain in Class." We were fortunate enough to have Jenifer Bukohke Wakuhug...

Sustainable finance signifies the potential for investment opportunities to yield both a return on investment and progress in a variety of important social areas; including environmental sustainability, financial inclusion, women's economic empowerment and racial equality. But what tools, strategies and innovations will we need to ensure that we maximize the full potential of sustainable finance?...

Last October, UNCDF named the investment management industry leader and philanthropist Sonia Gardner as Goodwill Ambassador for Gender Equality in Access to Finance—making her the first goodwill ambassador in the 50+ year history of UNCDF. In her role, Ms. Gardner will focus on advocating for ways to give women access to economic resources, including the capital they need to start and grow busines...

The United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). from their flagship series: " Blended Finance in the LDCs, 2020: Supporting a Resilient Covid-19 Recovery ." The third edition of the Blended Finance in the LDCs report series acknowledges that least developed countries are not able to harness the full potential...

In late 2018, UNCDF embarked on an unprecedented journey--the creation of the first ever UN-exchange traded fund (ETF). The non-profit ETF sponsor, Impact Shares, launched the Sustainable Development Goals Global Equity ETF (NYSE Arca: SDGA) in collaboration with UNCDF. The ETF would enable investments that support the achievement of the SDGs, while reflecting the importance of the LDC markets and...

"The future we want, the United Nations we need: reaffirming our collective commitment to multilateralism"--one of the critical themes of this year's UN General Assembly, marking the 75th anniversary of the UN. From confronting the COVID-19 pandemic to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, multilateralism is an irreplaceable element of success. UNCDF's commitment to multilateralism is refle...

2020 marks the 75th anniversary of the United Nations. As the UN looks to deliver a future that is anchored in universality, indivisibility and integration, an important question has emerged: what UN will we need in order to deliver the future we want? On Episode 18 of Capital Musings, we pose this question to Mounir Ibrahim—who references his experience as a U.S. diplomat working in Syria, a memb...

When we discuss financial inclusion, specifically in regards to women, the conversation often focuses on developing markets and least developed countries. But challenges to financial inclusion exist for women in developed economies as well, including the United States. So, what are the lessons we can take from developed economies that we can apply to the last mile, and vice versa? In what would be...

The reckoning taking place in the United States is both historic and undeniable. One of the drivers of this conversation revolves around the racial wealth gap in the U.S. Understanding the causes behind this gap is essential to achieving racial progress in the United States, but how can we broaden this understanding to address structural barriers to economic equity in least developed countries? Pe...

This January marked the commencement of the "Decade of Action"--the final 10 year period to deliver on the Sustainable Development Goals. With the global finance gap to achieve the SDGs in the trillions, one question that has emerged is: how can the private sector generally, and corporate brands with global scale in particular, play a role in driving achievement of the SDGs? And how can business m...

According to the GIIN's 2018, Annual Impact Investor Survey, a majority of respondents reported applying a gender lens to their investments processes—an astounding 70%. And while gender lens investing holds the potential that investment capital can support women-owned and gender-friendly businesses while delivering a return on investment, a separate question persists: can gender lens investing act...

One of the many challenges stemming from COVID-19, particularly in the context of the world's least developed countries, relates to the deployment of capital. Fast tracking of payments and capital will be essential to the goal of supporting LDCs in the context of COVID-19, from providing financial support to vulnerable populations, to disbursing grants to SMEs, to sending payments to healthcare wo...

Local governments have been on the frontlines when it comes to the COVID-19 response, in large part because of their competencies--citizen engagement, management of public space and service delivery. But for local governments in the world's least developed countries, their ability to execute an effective response is undermined by a lack of funding, considering many local governments lack the autho...

To all of the supporters of UNCDF and Capital Musings, we are thinking of all of you and we hope that you are navigating through this time as best as possible. You can find up-to-date information, guidance, and media resources on COVID-19 by going to the World Health Organization's website,  https://www.who.int . Thank you. ___ Several weeks ago, there was a question regarding sustainable dev...

Because of the focus on SDG 5 during the month of March, the next three episodes of Capital Musings will focus on gender equality and women’s economic empowerment. Digital has delivered the hope of financial inclusion for communities traditionally left behind by the global financial architecture, women and girls in particular. But digital has also shown a capability to increase as many divides as...