Davos 2026 – Is impact investing living up to its promise?

As global leaders gather in Davos later this month amid shrinking aid budgets and hardening geopolitical priorities, development finance is being recast through the language of investment – raising urgent questions about who shapes this new model, who carries the risk, and who benefits. Development finance is entering a period of profound transition. Traditional aid models are under strain, squeezed by fiscal pressure, political fragmentation and shifting global priorities. In their place, investment-led approaches, from impact investing and blended finance to philanthropic capital and deeper private sector engagement, are gaining prominence as the future of development. In this episode of Think Change, we examine what this shift looks like in practice. How is capital being deployed across Africa and other emerging markets? What role do micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) play in translating finance into inclusive growth? And how viable is the move from grants to risk-tolerant investment in fragile and underserved contexts? Experts discuss where impact investing is delivering real outcomes, where expectations may be overstated, and how power, incentives and accountability are shifting as development increasingly speaks the language of capital. As Davos conversations turn towards mobilising private finance and redefining global cooperation, the episode asks whether investment genuinely deepen development, rather than simply reshaping it in the image of existing markets. Guests Sara Pantuliano (host), Chief Executive, ODI Global Amit Bouri , Co-Founder and CEO, Global Impact Investing Network (GIIN) Neil Gregory , Senior Advisor to ODI Global's Centre for Private Finance in Development Dorothy Nyambi , President and CEO, Mennonite Economic Development Associates (MEDA) Related resources IRIS+ Impact Principles Impact Investor Survey

You can listen to Davos 2026 – Is impact investing living up to its promise? online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

Davos 2026 – Is impact investing living up to its promise? is an episode from ODI podcasts by ODI podcasts.

This episode is 33:06 long.

This episode was published on Jan 8, 2026.

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