The Swiss International Cooperation Plan 2021–24 highlights private sector engagement (PSE) as a key strategy for achieving sustainable development and reducing poverty.
The Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) pledged 15 million Swiss francs to the Bamboo-UNCDF Initiative for the Least Developed (BUILD) Fund as part of its goal to collaborate with the business sector in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
An innovative investment fund called The BUILD Fund supports small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) in underdeveloped and lower-middle-income nations (LDCs and LMICs). Combining public and private investments, will have a beneficial local impact and help to accomplish the SDGs.
The BUILD Fund, which was established in 2020 and is run by Swiss company Bamboo Capital Partners (BCP), gives growth financing to companies that UNCDF has identified, encouraged, and supported. The BUILD Fund’s overarching goals are to contribute to the reduction of gender inequality, the alleviation of poverty, and the promotion of inclusive and sustainable economic growth.
The BUILD Fund seeks to make investments in the following four areas:
1) food security, nutrition, and agriculture;
2) financial inclusion and innovation;
3) the green economy and renewable energy;
4) local infrastructure; and
5) youth and women’s economic empowerment.
The economic empowerment of women, particularly by supporting enterprises owned or operated by women, is a crucial component of this. Hence, the BUILD Fund helps the Swiss International Cooperation Plan 2021–24 realize its varied objectives.
Advocating For Equitable And Sustainable Economic Growth
Switzerland will support the BUILD Fund with two independent but related investments: First, a direct contribution of 5 million Swiss francs into the BUILD fund that can be used globally in the nations and industries with the greatest need for funding to realize the 2030 Agenda.
Secondly, an indirect investment of 9 million Swiss francs will be made through a donation to UNCDF, which will designate the money for investments in Zambia and Zimbabwe. The SDC also contributes 1 million Swiss francs to the BUILDER TA facility, which is actively engaged in pipeline generation, portfolio building, and business advising support for companies.
The Southern African Development Community (SDC) has a long history of operating in Southern Africa, and this financing has been designated especially for initiatives in Zambia and Zimbabwe that fall under the SDC (SADC).
Beginning with South Africa in 1994, Swiss assistance in the region expanded to include several SADC Member States. The initiative will only be focused on Zimbabwe and Zambia starting in 2023. In response to the humanitarian crisis that has been raging in Zimbabwe since 2008, initiatives in the fields of food security and sexual and reproductive health and rights, with a particular focus on women and youth, have been launched.
SMEs struggle to meet their financial demands in Zambia and Zimbabwe, as in many developing nations, despite their relevance to achieving the SDGs and their contribution to economic growth.
Their ability to produce and survive is limited by this. Although it is growing, just 6% of the private capital raised by official development financing between 2012 and 2017 flowed to LDCs, even though blended finance should in theory remedy this underfunding.
