Blended finance instruments, most notably impact bonds, represent one of the most promising areas of social finance, including for global health. Representing multi-stakeholder partnerships involving public, private and non-profit sectors, impact bonds shift financial risk from service providers to investors, with the latter underwriting the former based on their ability to deliver positive social outcomes. In this session, we hope to explore:

a) justifications for the wider implementation of blended finance instruments;
b) its various forms and permutations;
c) lessons learned after a decade of experience; and
d) their appropriateness as alternative financing mechanisms for global health.

Led by Aria Ilyad Ahmad, Research Fellow, Global Health Foresighting