Hoover’s Emerging Markets Working Group held a private roundtable on mobilizing alternative financing for development in partnership with the ONE civic organization on the sidelines of the World Bank/IMB Spring meeting on Thursday, April 24th at Hoover’s Offices in Washington, DC.
The roundtable brought together government officials, scholars, philanthropists and business leaders to discuss challenges to unlock greater investment on the African continent and strategies to catalyze funding to meet current needs. Participants agreed that development strategies must be reimagined to prioritize local ownership, sustainability, and data-driven decision-making. Key insights included the urgent need for greater public access to investment data, including data from the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation (IFC) and multilateral development banks, to challenge prevailing narratives and demonstrate viable returns in Africa, especially in recognition of the significant cuts announced to official development assistance (ODA) in the US and across Europe.
Participants highlighted the importance of collecting more granular, country-level data, including through platforms like Hoover’s EMWG’s Global Resilience Index Platform and Partnership (GRIPP) Initiative.
Further, the discussion focused on Healthcare Financing and Efficiency as a major focus for how to scale health systems in Africa, which are key to strengthening its human capital. The continent is not capital-poor; high-net-worth Africans hold $2.5 trillion in assets under management. The challenge lies in channeling domestic and diaspora capital back into African infrastructure, health, and equity investments, where central banks playing a larger role in risk mitigation and liquidity.
Hoover’s EMWG has established a partnership with the World Bank and InterAmerican Development bank, and is in discussions with other MDBs in Africa, to access their data to build a publicly available data base. This resource will help the private sector and other stakeholders make informed decisions on risk and returns, catalyzing private sector investment into emerging markets infrastructure.
