Empowering Capital.
Mobilizing Investment.
Shaping the Future of Blended Finance.

• Challenges and opportunities in mobilizing capital for ideas with clear impact potential
• How development finance ecosystem players think, operate and make decisions
• How mandates, incentives and institutional constraints shape what funders and investors can support
• Participants’ impact financing ideas, challenges, strategic questions and emerging insights

• Highlight how a small set of core financial products and tools — including grants, technical assistance, loans, equity, guarantees, insurance and other instruments such as derivatives — underpin blended and catalytic finance structures.
• Common structuring concepts, including capital stacks, funding continuums, first-loss positions and risk-sharing arrangements
• Key terms such as concessionality, additionality, risk, return and impact metrics — including why they matter and how they are understood by funders and investors
• Informal Q&A on financial terminology, structured finance concepts, transaction design and participant-specific questions

• ODA budgets are under pressure, concessional capital is becoming more contested, agencies are changing, and major development actors are being pushed to mobilize private capital at greater scale.
• Funders, managers and project proponents are operating in an environment where capital scarcity, strategic priorities and execution demands are all intensifying.
• Practitioners need to understand not only the instruments, but the capital movement patterns now shaping the field.

• Institutional capital — including pension funds, insurers and other large pools of long-term capital — remains one of the most important and difficult sources of scale for blended and sustainable finance.
• Unlocking institutional participation requires credible investment pathways: appropriate risk profiles, sufficient scale, predictable cash flows, tenor alignment, diversified exposure, liquidity potential, governance discipline and clear risk-return alignment.
• New approaches — including MDB risk transfer, securitization and portfolio-based structures — are opening new channels for institutional investor participation.

Participants unpack a high-profile real-world example of institutional capital mobilization at scale, using the IDB Invest synthetic risk transfer / securitization structure as a practical case study.

• Demystify how the structure works, who participates, what risks are transferred and why the transaction matters.
• Explore how MDB loan assets, portfolio approaches and credit enhancement can create pathways for institutional capital participation.
• Draw lessons for how similar capital mobilization pathways could be built over time in other development, climate and emerging market contexts.

• The future of blended finance increasingly depends on building investable platforms, portfolios and ecosystems — not just isolated projects.
• Practitioners need to think about how assets are originated, aggregated, structured, de-risked and matured over time to support deeper institutional participation.
• The session explores how ecosystem-building can help create the conditions for repeatable, scalable and investable opportunities.

Participants use a proprietary pathway-mapping tool to explore how institutional capital participation can be built over time — including the practical steps needed to move from individual transactions toward investable platforms and portfolios.

• A short readout draws together what it takes to move from donor-backed concepts and individual transactions toward scalable investment platforms that can attract institutional capital over time.
• How risk transfer, credit enhancement, aggregation and diversification can help create more investable opportunities.
• Why liquidity, tenor, track record, governance and investment-grade characteristics matter for institutional participation.
• What emerging examples reveal about the future of blended finance as a bridge to deeper pools of capital.

The afternoon session shifts from market changes and institutional capital challenges to the practical work of building momentum: aligning partners, addressing barriers, strengthening the proposition and improving the path from concept to committed capital.

• Development, trade and investment priorities are becoming more closely connected as countries seek new growth markets, strategic partnerships and resilient supply chains.
• Blended finance can help connect public-purpose objectives with private-sector capabilities, local market development and long-term investment pathways.
• This theme highlights what integrated development, trade and investment corridors mean in practice for governments, DFIs, fund managers, foundations, not-for-profits and private-sector partners.

• Many blended finance concepts stall not because the underlying idea is weak, but because the structure, positioning, partners or sequencing are missing key elements — or because early red flags undermine confidence.
• Participants examine a dozen common barriers that prevent capital from moving, including risk allocation, mandate alignment, pipeline credibility, governance, investor confidence, unclear routes to scale and other execution challenges.
• The session highlights key success factors for building momentum, including sharper strategic framing, clearer additionality, stronger metrics, credible concessionality justification, stronger partner alignment and a more convincing path from concept to committed capital.

Participants work with a practical Crystalus diagnostic tool to assess and strengthen the conversion readiness of a blended finance initiative.

• Identify red flags, gaps and barriers that can slow or stop capital mobilization.
• Explore how stronger positioning, sequencing, evidence and structure can improve funder and investor engagement.
• Apply practical readiness questions to sharpen the path from concept to committed capital.

• A facilitated integration session connecting the day’s major themes to participants’ own work, organizations and capital mobilization challenges.
• Participants reflect on where their own initiatives sit within the evolving capital mobilization landscape.
• The discussion connects institutional capital pathways, integrated corridors and conversion readiness into one practical operating perspective.
• The session supports peer exchange, applied discussion and preparation for the expert panel.

• Participants use the day’s core frameworks to identify where an initiative, structure or institutional strategy may need stronger alignment, clearer positioning or deeper collaboration to build momentum.

• Participants receive practical resources to illuminate and extend the day’s session, including selected placemats, diagnostic tools, spreadsheet tools, infographics and digital resources.
• Tools may support self-assessment, structure visualization, investor confidence analysis and capital mobilization planning.
• Materials are designed to help participants apply the day’s insights after the workshop.

A moderated conversation with senior practitioners on what they are seeing now across blended and sustainable finance markets.

• Where capital is moving — and what funders, investors and public institutions are looking for now.
• How expectations are changing around scale, mobilization, risk-sharing, additionality and measurable outcomes.
• What it will take to mobilize capital at much greater scale in the next generation of blended finance.
• Speakers: TBD.

• The day concludes by drawing together the major insights, tools and strategic takeaways from the flagship session.
• A short readout captures the most important insights from the day’s discussions, exercises and expert panel.
• The closing reinforces the pathways toward institutional capital, integrated development/trade/investment strategies and improved conversion readiness.
• Participants leave informed, energized and better equipped to help move initiatives from concept to committed capital.

Participants are invited to continue the conversation informally over a networking reception and cocktails at a nearby Ottawa venue.

• Where private and institutional capital can realistically enter Canadian priority agendas
• What makes infrastructure, resilience, housing and public-purpose investment opportunities investable
• How catalytic capital can reduce friction, share risk and unlock participation
• Where impact investors, pension funds, insurers, banks and public actors can align
• How Canadian trade, development and investment priorities can connect to growth markets abroad

• A senior industry perspective on what it takes to align public priorities, private capital and institutional investment around credible opportunities.

• Identify where capital could move around infrastructure, climate resilience, housing, community investment or other public-purpose needs.
• Surface the key barriers, catalytic tools, partnerships or policy shifts needed to move opportunities toward investment readiness.

• Identify where development, trade and investment priorities can align around real market opportunities.
• Surface the catalytic capital, risk-sharing tools, partnerships or platforms needed to move from strategy to transactions.

• Brief read-outs from the two co-creation labs, highlighting key ideas, barriers and practical opportunities
• Shared takeaways on advancing credible public/private funding pathways at home and abroad

An informal opportunity for participants, speakers and invited guests to continue the conversation and build relationships following the workshop.