Beyond Aid: Building the Next Development Funding Ecosystem

As development assistance budgets come under increasing pressure, a wider range of actors are being asked to support development outcomes, from philanthropies and development finance institutions to impact investors, commercial capital, and locally rooted organizations. But the question is not simply what replaces aid. It is how different forms of capital can work together, where each is best positioned to contribute, and what role risk plays in shaping those choices. This conversation will explore the future of development finance through two simple questions: Who benefits from an intervention? And who bears the risk? The answers can help clarify which funding approaches are best suited to different challenges, where partnerships create genuine value, and where complexity may outweigh the benefits. Rather than promoting a particular financing model, the discussion will examine how public, philanthropic, and private capital can be deployed more intentionally to advance development outcomes in an era beyond aid What to expect A participatory conversation bringing together perspectives from across public, philanthropic, private, and locally-rooted finance. An opening discussion will frame the questions of benefit and risk before inviting participants to test them against real development challenges and their own experience. The emphasis will be on examining trade-offs rather than promoting a particular financing model, with space to surface examples of where different forms of capital have worked well together and where attempts to combine them have fallen short. Who this is for This session is for development practitioners, philanthropic funders, impact investors, public funders, local financial institutions, policymakers, and others interested in how different sources of capital can be deployed more intentionally to advance development outcomes. What you will get out of it A practical understanding of the comparative advantages of public, philanthropic, and private capital Perspectives on when combining funding streams creates value and when it adds unnecessary complexity Examples and lessons from others navigating a changing development finance landscape New connections across forms of capital that are too often discussed separately Hosted by Chemonics International