Devex: In Davos, the art of the development deal
Raj Kumar, founding president and editor-in-chief of Devex

“…There’s nothing new about looking for money under every rock to solve global challenges. What’s new is the potential to use innovative tools to blend together different kinds of funding — just at the moment that’s needed most. It’s what’s known as the ‘billions to trillions’ agenda, and it’s a way to raise the whole new level of finance the SDGs require. It’s tailor made for Davos. … Some [deals] are officially supported by the World Economic Forum such as the vaccine initiatives Gavi and CEPI; many more are business transactions among the billionaires and corporate titans gathering here. Now that global development has entered an era of financial innovation, Davos has more relevance than ever. We’re entering an era of Davos dealmaking for development. A kind of financial engineering for good. Picture billionaire philanthropists, corporate titans, NGO chiefs, multilateral development bank presidents, aid agency heads, and, yes, finance ministers from the Global South, plotting and planning together. At Davos this year, we’ll be on the lookout for these kinds of deals…” (1/23).