Uxolo Indepth

In this episode of Uxolo: In-Depth With, Jessica Brown speaks with Aliou Maiga, Regional Industry Director, Financial Institutions Group, Africa at IFC (World Bank Group), about one of the most ambitious agricultural transformation platforms currently underway: AgriConnect.  

In this special International Women’s Day edition of Uxolo: In-Depth With, Jessica Brown sits down with Veronika Giusti Keller, Head of Impact, and Alessandra Nibbio, Head of Blended Finance, at BlueOrchard.

Uxolo spoke with Sebastiaan Surie, head of new ventures at Climate Fund Managers to explore how blended finance is driving climate infra investment in emerging markets, from resilient infra to green hydrogen via the combination of public and private capital.

In today’s episode, Dr. Khalid Khalafalla, CEO of the Islamic Corporation for the Insurance of Investment and Export Credit (ICIEC) and Acting CEO of the Islamic Corporation for the Development of the Private Sector (ICD), shares his strategic vision for advancing sustainable economic growth across Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) member countries. He discusses how ICIEC and ICD complement each other within the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) Group, the alignment of Islamic finance with ESG principles, and the institution’s role in unlocking private capital through blended finance and innovative risk-sharing tools.

In today’s episode, Leslie Maasdorp, CEO of British International Investment (BII), shares his strategic vision for scaling sustainable finance in frontier and emerging markets. He discusses how BII is navigating global funding cuts, recent investments in green infrastructure and digital connectivity, and the institution’s evolving approach to impact and transparency.

Dive into an enlightening conversation with Anshula Kant, Managing Director and CFO of the World Bank Group at the Uxolo Global 2025 conference in Copenhagen as she unpacks the complexities facing global development today. In this exclusive podcast episode, Anshula shares a front-row perspective on the unprecedented challenges emerging economies confront—especially the looming youth employment crisis, with over a billion young people entering the workforce in the next decade but not nearly enough jobs to match.

In today's episode, Signe Kolby Sørensen, Director of Strategy & Impact at Norfund, discusses investment strategies aligned with impactful development. She highlights Norfund’s approach to blended finance, resilient economies, the recent influential investment in AgDevCo, and navigating the balance between financial returns and development goals.

Uxolo speaks with Bart Raemaekers Head of Syndications & Concessional Financings at the Asian Development Bank (ADB) 'the climate bank of Asia'; delving into the financial toolkit available to the team for mobilising private capital into the projects that need it the most.

Carey Bohjanen, founder of the Rallying Cry Initiative – in partnership with Dutch development banks FMO – and MD of Sustainable Finance Advisory, outlines how she engages top finance and industrial leaders via ecosystem level initiatives to shift business as "unusual" for better outcomes.

Jorim introduces the projects carried out by the Dutch development bank across UN’s Sustainable Development Goals 8, 10 and 13 (01:00), the relevance of biodiversity at COP26 and nature-based solutions in climate finance (02:00); the value of biodiversity, dependency of the financial sector on the diversity of species and understanding the metrics for evaluating the impact of biodiversity (05:10), working on the risk management aspect of biodiversity (08:18); structuring blended finance projects to foster biodiversity (10:40), the ways in which development banks are shifting from risk management approach to nature positive impact (14:05), relevance of UN Biodiversity Conference in Kunming, China and the potential for development finance players to engage with nature positive investments (15:50).  Link to UN Biodiversity Conference: https://www.unep.org/news-and-stories/story/what-you-need-know-about-un-biodiversity-conference

Uxolo speaks with Christian Deseglise, Head of Sustainable Finance at HSBC about his reactions to COP26 in Glasgow (01:00), the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero (GFANZ) which brings together approximately 450 institutions representing $130 trillion (03:05), the growing realisation that emerging markets infrastructure assets are a key factor in the transition to net zero (05:40) and the ecosystem of infrastructure finance (08:00). The discussion continues with the role of DFIs & MDBs in mobilising capital towards and de-risking transition projects (10:45), examples of financing vehicles that HSBC is involved in partnering with MDBs including ADB & IFC for sustainable infrastructure (14:53) and the deep understanding of commercial banks that climate change is a very real threat and their unique role to help their clients transition successfully to net zero by 2050, ensuring that both clients and the communities they serve can continue to be successful (18:30).

Benny explains AIIB’s focus on digital and sustainable infrastructure and infrastructure for tomorrow (00:43); his perspective on the outcomes of COP26, the push for implementation and mobilising private capital (03:00); what are AIIB’s plans for creating climate change resilient infrastructure and what sectors will the Beijing-based bank cover under their climate finance portfolio (06:50); the bank's strategy to align themselves to the Paris agreement by 2023 (08:30); the challenges posed by regulatory frameworks in mobilising private capital (10:15); investing in new technologies to mitigate climate change (14:00); and the potential of circular economy (16:50).

Serena Guarnaschelli, a partner at KOIS, speaks with Uxolo about the firm’s work in impact investment – particularly on migration, refugees integration, and climate change – and takes us through the evolution of the space over the years.

Infrastructure specialist (innovation and green finance) at the Southeast Asia department of the Asian Development Bank (ADB), Naeeda Crishna Morgado speaks with Uxolo to discuss their focus on climate financing, their efforts at building green bonds and the need for policy reforms.

Head of Impact and ESG at impact investor Silverstreet Capital, Julia Wakeling speaks with Uxolo about the company’s work on improving the lives of smallholder farmers, optimising land use through better seed technology in African countries, and generating attractive returns for their investors.

Sam McManus at Uxolo Development Finance talks to Hoda Moustafa, Africa Regional Head at Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA) about successful solar power project models in Africa.

Listen to this week's podcast where Sam McManus, Director at Uxolo Development Finance, talks with Matthew Jordan-Tank, Director, Sustainable Infrastructure Policy and Preparation at EBRD, about the hurdles and potential solutions to attracting more private sector investment into sustainable infrastructure projects.

Uxolo speaks with Alejandro Litovsky, Founder & CEO, Earth Security on climate finance and making carbon an investable market with reference to a mangroves case study for CDC for Zephyr Power’s 50MW wind project near Karachi, Pakistan, creating the mangroves 40 cities network and the mangrove municipal bond fund.

Uxolo speaks with Mayank Goyal, Senior Operations Officer, International Development Association (IDA), about how IDA works in collaboration with other departments in the World Bank to successfully finance development projects in some of the world’s poorest countries including the Solomon Islands, Togo, Mali, Haiti, Cambodia and Uganda.

Marie introduces the GI Hub created by the G20 in 2014 and how they support the progression of the infrastructure sector (00:24), how climate change and the funding shortfall are significant challenges to infrastructure (03:15), ‘brownfield’ Vs ‘greenfield’ and climate mitigation of projects (07:15), driving a sustainability-led infrastructure future (09:54), how infrastructure technology AKA ‘InfraTec’ is no longer a nice-to-have with a water case study example (11:20), filling the funding gap needs to start with government vision for projects to leverage the private sector and improving the PPP model (15:40), how infrastructure has the power to transition to Net Zero carbon neutrality via ‘Circular Economy’ (18:50).

Alessandra and Valerie introduce BlueOrchard on their 20th anniversary of impact investing and now being a part of the Schroders Group (00:55), how they work with DFIs and Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs) in their blended finance strategies (03:25), the importance of adhering to the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR) of the Article 9 standard issued by the European Supervisory Authorities as required by their DFI partners (05:30), how technical assistance facilities and other DFI structures including ‘first loss’ can attract impact investors to blended finance projects (07:18),  how BlueOrachard worked with DFIs to structure initiatives to help support their clients very quickly during the Covid 19 pandemic (09:55), supporting education in Africa (13:00), the DFIs they are working with in the successful second closing of their USD$ 200m Covid-19 support fund (15:39), and the future of the blended finance impact investment industry to support the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) (17:13).

Bogolo discusses her work with the G7 Gender Equality Advisory Council (0:49), how the G7 DFIs and others are leading the charge for gender equality with the 2X Challenge (02:30), but how ‘gender lens’ investing is still just a tiny fraction compared with wider ESG investment (03:27), how institutions can continue to push gender equality further (05:45), regression of gender equality in Africa due to the Covid pandemic (07:28),  the continuing Covid pandemic in Africa, lack of vaccines and/or overpriced vaccines and the desperate need for vaccines before recovery can really begin (10:24), the importance for African countries to get involved in the production of vaccines and the role of IP wavers to support this (13:54), highlighting examples of overpriced imported vaccines (15:50), a global plea to governments and institutions for more opportunities to purchase vaccines for Africa  (18:00), her role as an Amujae Leader, being a Minister at age 30 and her network of women mentees and mentors working together (19:53).

Meaghan discusses where the IFC sits in the World Bank Group and how these institutions operate (0:41), how IFC only lends to the private sector and aims to make the ‘inroads’ into projects before commercial lenders (02:47), what drives IFC to make investments and how they balance ESG impact with financial returns (04:13), how they mobilize private capital and are seeing more impact investors and ‘patient’ capital (07:45), how IFC builds relationships with investors (09:53), what they really mean by ‘patient’ capital (14:10), how do institutional investors view IFC? (16.50), how IFC aligns themselves with certain investors and are “hard to date but good to be married to” (21:46) and finally how IFC is aligning their investment book with the Paris Agreement (24:50).

Manfred discusses ILX Fund (0.45), his time at EBRD (01.45), currency instruments (02.50), bridging the gap for private finance to assist DFIs to invest in the SDGs (03.20), the ‘new phenomenon’ of the DFI market (05.25), the need for more transparency and data in the market (07.00), the GEMS database and risk data (11.20), the movement towards becoming a new asset class and how impact is in the DNA of DFIs (12:50), the importance of scaling-up over time (15.40), managing a portfolio of development projects (17.30), measuring the impact of development projects (18.50), the activity of the Dutch pension funds and specific MDBs (20.20), the ILX Fund sector focus (22.30) and advice for investors in the development blended finance space (25.00).

Recorded on: Thursday 10th June 2021 MDBs, DFIs, ECAs, commercial banks and other lenders, investors and underwriters have all been pulling together to support communities and companies in the short-term to combat the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. The panel commented on the ongoing collaboration in particular being harnessed to support vaccine manufacturing around the world, and the different products and roles they can each bring to the table.

Recorded on:  Friday 30th April 2021 Sam McManus talks to Dr. Robert Besseling, Founder and CEO of PANGEA-RISK, about the historical and existing role of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), especially in Africa, and how the G20 club of wealthy nations is close to backing a new allocation of the IMF’s Special Drawing Rights.

Date recorded: Monday 17th May 2021 Sam McManus, Director at Uxolo Development Finance speaks with David Ashiagbor, Chief Financial Sector Strategy Officer at The African Development Bank (AfDB) about how DFIs and investors can help to further develop Africa's financial sector to directly benefit people's lives and the economies of all the countries on the continent.

Recorded on: Wednesday 2nd June 2021 Sam McManus, Director at Uxolo Development Finance speaks with Kofi Asumadu Addo, Director Guarantees and Specialized Finance at Afreximbank on how after being mandated by the Africa Union to finance and underwrite ALL Covid-19 Vaccinations across the African Continent, which financial products, partnerships and platforms Afreximbank is utilising in order to achieve this critical undertaking.

Recorded on: Tuesday 8th June 2021 Sam McManus, Director at Uxolo Development Finance speaks with Arnaud Gillin, Partner & Co-Founder of Innpact, regarding their role as impact investment fund advisors, and how the market is rapidly maturing.

Recorded on:  Wednesday 16th June 2021 Sam McManus, Director at Uxolo Development Finance caught up with Amal-Lee Amin, Director & Head of Climate Change at CDC, the UK’s development finance institution & impact investor, to discuss the specifics of climate financing and how it has evolved over time.

Recorded on: Wednesday 23rd June 2021 Sam McManus, Director at Uxolo Development Finance, talks shop with Marisela Alvarenga, Chief of the Financial Institutions Division at IDB Invest, about how the multilateral is helping to structure new financial products in Latin America to boost sustainability; with a focus on thematic bonds including green and blue bonds, social bonds and sustainable bonds.

Recorded on: Wednesday 7th July 2021 Sam McManus, Director, Uxolo Development Finance speaks with Nafisa Jiwani, Managing Director, Health Initiatives at the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) about their Global Health and Prosperity Initiative, gender equality, and how technology can transform healthcare in the future.

Recorded on: Tuesday 29th June 2021 In 2018 the G7 development finance institutions (DFIs) made a commitment to deploy $3 billion before the end of 2020 in emerging markets private sector investments that benefit women - the 2X Challenge. Sam McManus discusses the impact of the initiative with Anne-Marie Lévesque, Director, Gender and Impact Management at FinDev Canada and Jessica Espinoza-Trujano, Vice President, Investments, Private Equity & Venture Capital at DEG