Under the title ‘How can We Maximise Inclusive Growth and Development? The Pros and Cons of Private Sector Engagement and Blending Instruments’ the EIB will bring together partners from business, lenders, NGOs and the European Commission at the EDDs 2012 to examine the advantages and challenges of projects with private participation in developing countries.
The panel is held in the context of the European Commission’s ‘Agenda for Change’ which recommends rethinking development finance by increasing the use of innovative financing instruments and by leveraging private sector investments. Different aspects of blending loans and grants, the merits, limits and the enabling environment needed to mobilize private sector funds will be discussed. While donors, partner countries and the private sector agree to enhance public private cooperation, sceptics see a danger in the possible shift of overseas development assistance (ODA) to the private sector, increasing business profits while insufficiently addressing social needs and in the possible debt overload of beneficiaries.