◉ PSYCHOHISTORY

Blended finance

conceptMoney & Finance
Public money is placed in the riskiest slot of an investment, so private investors can be paid first.
Who they are

The OECD, World Bank, GEF, Rockefeller Foundation and others, whose reports all use the same language about blended finance[1].

What they do

A way to structure investment using two layers: a senior tranche and a junior tranche. Public money sits in the junior, first-loss slot.

How it works

The model is the same one used in earlier structured finance. Public money takes the first loss, which lowers the risk for private investors in the senior tranche. Reports from the OECD, World Bank, GEF, Rockefeller Foundation and others present blended finance as a success story in the making. The term was coined at a Rockefeller Foundation retreat at the Bellagio Centre. The Green Climate Fund was set up using blended finance. The Rockefeller Foundation also produced a report on blended finance leverage claims. A UK government document lists blended finance among mechanisms to improve outcomes in communities. A Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors guide introduces impact investing.

Why it matters

It shows how public money can be used to absorb risk for private investors, while the public story is that everyone wins.

The engine's record — word for word
The corpus records: "The architecture now called ‘ blended finance ‘ uses the identical model — senior tranche, junior tranche — but with public money explicitly positioned in the first-loss slot ." It is presented publicly as: "The language is consistent across reports from the OECD 1 , World Bank 2 , GEF 3 , Rockefeller Foundation 4 and others 5 : blended finance is a success story in the making ." Documents named in the corpus: Addis Ababa Action Agenda; Cape Town Convention; MAC Protocol; Global Impact Investing Network; Clinton Global Initiative; Moringa Fund. Cross-sourced to gov.uk, rockpa.org — documents cited by the corpus and retrieved independently of it.
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