USAID Mission staff know that working with the private sector can help achieve their development objectives, but it can be hard to know where to start.
Over the course of seven years, from 2017 to 2024, INVEST mobilized $1.61 billion, working together with 39 USAID MBIOs and almost 200 private sector partners.
Through this work, INVEST amassed a great deal of knowledge on how to scope, implement, and measure activities that mobilize capital for development.
INVEST was designed to test new approaches and tools to help USAID MBIOs mobilize capital to achieve their Development Objectives. This guide offers learning resources and practical tools to help USAID staff reach their goals.
Table of Contents
- Four key approaches to mobilize private capital: Transaction advisory services, catalytic funding, mobilizing institutional investment, and technical assistance.
- Statements of Objectives (SOO) database
- You don't have to do it alone: eLearning, USAID Finance and Investment Network (FIN) database, Using a network approach
- Practical tools and job aids
- Resources by technical sector
- Information on specific buy-ins and country activities
1. Four Key Approaches to Mobilize Private Capital
INVEST’s buy-in model relied on co-creation with USAID MBIOs to design scopes for every activity. In many cases, USAID MBIOs started with an investment opportunity assessment to inform the design of follow-on activities with INVEST. These activities typically used one of four approaches:
- Transaction advisory services
- Catalytic funding
- Mobilizing institutional investment
- Technical assistance
You can find learning resources for each approach in the sections below.
Technical Assistance
2. Statements of Objectives (SOO) Database
When developing a Statement of Objectives (SOO) or Request for Proposals (RFP) for a new activity to mobilize private capital, it can be helpful to have a model to draw from. INVEST created a database with hundreds of SOOs and RFPs, which you can filter by sector, region, country, or technical approach.
Watch the tutorial video below and access the database here.
3. You Don’t Have to Do It Alone
There are many private-sector firms, like transaction advisors and fund managers, that operate in USAID-presence countries and can offer valuable expertise and familiarity with local markets. INVEST engaged 198 partners – mostly private-sector firms – to implement activities that reach USAID’s development objectives in more than 80 countries.
E-Learning: Mobilizing Private Investment: You Don't Have to Do It Alone
In this self-paced course, USAID staff can learn how to work with investment intermediaries like fund managers and transaction advisors. You will learn more about partner capabilities and how to write effective Statements of Objectives to engage them.
Working with New Partners in the Finance and Investment Community
A Network Approach to Engaging the Private Sector: Resource Guide
The PSE Innovation Roadmap series documents approaches that have shown positive outcomes through collaboration with the private sector. Their objective is to facilitate learning for USAID staff. They can help you determine whether an approach would be viable for replication in your context, offering key technical and operational information for project design. The roadmaps below focus on INVEST activities and are only available internally within USAID.
- Infrastructure Investment: The Pension Consortium Model
- Launching the CARICOM Resilience Fund
- Assessing Voluntary Carbon Markets in Pakistan
- Investment Facilitation in El Salvador
Resources for Activity Design and Management
Using Blended Finance to Generate Additionality and Human Impact: Guidance Note
Performance Incentives for Capital Mobilization: Determining Compensation for Transaction Advisors
How Much USAID Funding is Needed in a Blended Finance Transaction? Ask the Market.
Gender Lens Investing Resource Guide
INVEST has worked with the USAID Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment Hub (GenDev) and USAID Missions to advance women's economic empowerment by unlocking private investment in women around the world. The stories and tools captured in this resource guide share what we’ve learned from partnering with the private sector to mobilize capital, mainstream gender-smart policies and practices, and increase access to capital for women and women-led businesses.
Catalyzing Finance for Climate Action Resource Guide
Through INVEST, USAID has partnered with the private sector to identify and pursue opportunities for additionality and impact in climate finance. USAID and INVEST have tested and refined new approaches to effectively implement and scale interventions to have a greater impact on climate change. The Catalyzing Finance for Climate Action Resource Guide shares what we’ve learned.
Catalyzing Private Finance for Climate Action: Learning Brief
The learning brief provides an overview and framework of how USAID can build on its use of blended finance to continue mobilizing private investment for climate mitigation, adaptation, resilience, and enabling environment solutions. Find select learning brief graphics for use in climate presentations here.
Mobilizing Finance for Health Resource Guide
USAID and other donors can play a key role in catalyzing private sector engagement for addressing infectious diseases and strengthening health systems. This resource guide provides learning resources and blogs that INVEST has produced over the course of project implementation.
Greater than the Sum of its Parts: Blended Finance Roadmap for Global Health
This practical resource identifies blended finance opportunities and instruments for USAID, other donors, and partners to design, develop, and implement activities to achieve health goals.
Mobilizing Investment for Agriculture Resource Guide
This practical resource details the approaches INVEST has used to mobilize private capital for the agriculture sector.
INVEST's final report contains insights and data from the project, as well as annexes with INVEST communications pieces and a summary for each of the project's 70 buy-ins.
INVEST Buy-in Activities
Short reports summarizing the objectives, activities, results, and lessons learned for each of INVEST's 70 buy-ins with 39 USAID MBIOs are available in Annex II of INVEST's final report.
- Afghanistan Trade and Investment
- AFR Pensions
- Bangladesh/World Bank
- Colombia Energy for Peace
- Colombia Sustainable Banking Alliance
- Digital Connectivity and Cybersecurity Partnership (America Connects)
- DCHA/ASHA Blended Finance Opportunity Assessment
- Dominican Republic
- DRC Blended Finance Opportunity Assessment
- E&E Investment Transparency Assistance
- El Salvador
- ESC Technical Advisory Services to Mobilize Capital for Resilience
- Eastern and Southern Caribbean (ESC)
- GenDev Challenge in Colombia
- GenDev Gender Lens Investing (GLI)
- GenDev Women's Economic Empowerment and Equality (WE3)
- Georgia Exports Promotion
- Georgia Foreign Direct Investment (FDI)
- Ghana Financing Ghanaian Agriculture Project (FinGAP) Legacy Assessment
- Ghana Market Systems and Resilient Assessment Update
- Global Health Bureau’s Center for Accelerating Innovation and Impact (CII)
- Global Health Center for Accelerating Innovation and Impact Blended Finance Roadmap
- Greenland Economic Growth and Community Development Landscape Assessment
- Haiti Agriculture
- Innovative Finance for Cholera in Haiti
- Haiti INVEST Platform
- Haiti Public-Private Partnership (PPP)
- Haiti Renewable Energy Market Assessment
- India 3.0 Innovative Funding Platform
- India Education
- India Tibetan Finance
- India WASH
- Indonesia
- Infrastructure Transaction and Assistance Network/ Transaction Advisory Fund
- Innovation, Technology and Research Lab (ITR) Digital Invest
- Innovation, Technology and Research (ITR) Lab Open Radio Access Network (ORAN)
- Italy Economic Support Fund
- ITR Lab
- Jamaica Education Public Private Partnership
- Lead-free Future
- Liberia
- Mexico
- Moldova Private-Sector Landscape Assessment for Mobilizing Capital
- Moldova Investment Platform
- Nigeria
- Pakistan Voluntary Carbon Markets
- PIVOT 1.0, 2.0, and the Climate Finance Practicum
- Power Africa Kenya
- Power Africa Institutional Investment
- Power Africa Uganda
- Prosper Africa Regional
- Prosper Africa Secretariat
- RFS/AFR Water
- Serbia Landscape Assessment for Mobilizing Capital
- Southern Africa Regional First Loss Facility (SAFLF)
- Strategic Corporate Engagement
- Syria Diaspora and Investment Community Listening Tour
- Tanzania Global Health
- Tunisia
- Uganda Prosper
- Ukraine Private Sector Landscape Assessment for Mobilizing Capital
- USAID Pensions
- Vietnam ADR
- Vietnam
- Water and Energy for Food (WE4F)
Explore stories from INVEST and our partners about our approaches, activities, human impact, and lessons learned over the course of the project.
This page is made possible by the support of the American people through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The contents of this page are the sole responsibility of INVEST, which was managed by DAI, and do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID or the United States Government.
Photo credits: Unsplash, iPhoto, Kentaste, Will Baxter/Catholic Relief Service, USAID Flickr, Nuup, Industree Foundation.