Convergence, the global network for blended finance, enables investments in emerging and frontier markets by leveraging public and philanthropic funding to unlock private sector monies to stimulate global development. Convergence awards grant funding to practitioners with the goal of stimulating the design of innovative financial products and mechanisms. The Bertha Centre partnered with Convergence as a learning partner, working with Convergence’s grantees to distil key learnings and outcomes from the design process, and package these learnings into succinct knowledge briefs hosted on Convergence’s Knowledge Library. These outputs, in the form of case studies, will be used to further the education of the finance industry and package blended finance in a digestible format. To date, the Bertha Centre has drafted case studies on a refugee-focused development impact bond and a corporate sustainability bond for natural rubber production.

Being part of every step of the design and launch of these innovative blended finance products provides the Bertha Centre team with unique insights and learnings into structured impact finance. The case studies are carefully tailored to ensure that these lessons are analysed and distilled to the impact investing market. They offer takeaways for both the private and public sector, and offer templates for successful, replicable innovations in finance.