Aligning Capital with National Priorities through the Global Financing Playbook
27 June 2025By Tom Beloe, Director of the Sustainable Finance Hub at United Nations Development Programme (UNDP); Rodrigo Salvado, Director General, Operational Partnerships, Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB); and Nicolas Picchiottino, Secretary General, International Development Finance Club (IDFC)
At the upcoming Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development (FFD4) in Sevilla, countries and institutions will gather around a shared goal: moving from commitment to action in responding to developing countries’ needs. Acting on this call, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), and the International Development Finance Club (IDFC) in collaboration with a large number of financial and development institutions are launching a groundbreaking Global Financing Playbook. This represents a decisive step from working in silos to collaboration and from good intentions to implementation, offering a framework for aligning capital with country-led development and climate priorities.
The Playbook comes at a critical time. Financing needs for sustainable development and climate goals continue to rise, while access to capital remains uneven. More than US$4 trillion is required annually to meet the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and nearly $6 trillion will be needed by 2030 to implement countries’ Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs). Meanwhile, institutional investors manage over $100 trillion in assets globally—yet only a small share reaches developing markets, and even less is tied to measurable sustainability outcomes. The challenge is not just scale—it is structure, access, and alignment.
Too often, countries face barriers to investment not necessarily because of lack of capital, but because pipelines are underprepared, risk perceptions are high, and financing remains fragmented across institutions and sectors. The Global Financing Playbook aims to close this gap by focusing on what makes finance work in practice.
For the first time, a diverse group of public and private finance actors—including governments, public development banks, institutional investors, philanthropies, and United Nations agencies—is bringing together a powerful mix of proven solutions and innovations to support country-led development strategies. The Global Financing Playbook is structured around four key pillars or development gaps:
- Policy de-risking: Strengthening national regulatory frameworks and aligning policies to create a stable and investable environment.
- Pipeline development: Enhancing project origination and preparation by aligning investments with sustainable development priorities and strengthening technical and institutional capacity.
- Financial de-risking: Mobilizing private capital through blended finance, guarantees, and risk-sharing mechanisms.
- Embedding impact: Integrating impact measurement and management into investment decisions to maximize sustainability outcomes per dollar invested.
What makes the Playbook unique is its capacity to connect new and existent solutions with developing countries’ needs. These include mechanisms such as Country Platforms (CPs) and Integrated National Financing Frameworks (INFFs), which are being implemented or piloted in many countries. CPs, led by national governments and anchored in domestic institutions, help align financing flows with development and climate goals by convening key actors – such as finance ministries, national development banks, and other partners – around a unified national strategy. INFFs, led by Ministries of Finance and now being implemented in over 85 countries, similarly provide a structured approach to financing by helping governments design integrated financing strategies that reflect their national development plans, climate targets, and biodiversity commitments (INFF Knowledge Platform). The Playbook also draws on instruments and tools developed by multilateral and national development banks—such as blended finance structures, risk-sharing mechanisms, and sustainability-linked investment pipelines.
As a FFD4 flagship initiative under the Sevilla Platform for Action, the Playbook roll-out will proceed through two immediate next steps:
- By Q4 2025, the first edition of the Playbook will be finalized and disseminated, including an online toolkit and pilot user pathways based on country experiences.
- By Q2 2026, a community of practice will be launched to support peer learning, joint resource mobilization, and application of the Playbook in three to five countries.
Beyond FFD4, the Playbook aligns with the broader roadmap toward COP30 in Belém, where many countries are expected to launch national financing platforms – such as CPs and INFFs – as mechanisms to align and deliver financing in support of national development and climate goals. The Playbook is positioned to support this transition, offering a practical means for governments to engage investors, development banks, and other partners around coherent, country-led financing strategies.
A summary outlining the Playbook’s framing and objectives is available here.
At FFD4, the launch of the Global Financing Playbook will mark a critical turning point—from high-level declarations to practical implementation. But we know that our true impact will be measured by what follows. UNDP, AIIB, and IDFC are already working with partners to translate the Playbook into real-world applications—tailoring technical support, strengthening policy coherence, and structuring blended finance solutions that respond to national needs.
In these critical times marked by global challenges and geopolitical divide, the only way out is through partnerships and collaboration. We call on all institutions that care for development to join us in this unprecedented action.
Participating Institutions in the Global Financing Playbook Initiative
As of June 2025
Confirmed endorsers of the Global Financing Playbook include the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the Development Bank of Latin America and the Caribbean (CAF), the United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF), the Financial Fund for the Development of the River Plate Basin (FONPLATA), Cassa Depositi e Prestiti (CDP), the Central American Bank for Economic Integration (CABEI), and the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA) of the World Bank Group.
Institutions actively engaged in consultations or providing inputs include the Association of European Development Finance Institutions (EDFI), and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
A wider group of partners have expressed interest or are in ongoing discussions, including the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), the Council of Europe Development Bank (CEB), the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB), the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA), the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero (GFANZ), the Green Climate Fund (GCF), the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the Brazilian Development Bank (BNDES), the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA), the African Development Bank (AfDB), the New Development Bank (NDB), the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation (CIFF), Sharing Strategies, and HSBC Holdings plc.