Our approach
Innovative finance, designed for West Africa.
SAIIF takes a place-based approach to innovative finance to address the gap between private capital and traditional development aid in the West African context. This means developing financial solutions that work for West Africans. To this end, a financial tool that would be classed as traditional elsewhere can be genuinely innovative here.
Three innovation paths
We address the gap in three innovative ways.
Generate additional funding
We unlock and channel capital that would otherwise sit on the sidelines.
Methods
- Leverage private financing through guarantees
- Crowdsource through diaspora funds
- Create partnerships through development impact bonds
Improve funding efficiency
We help investees absorb capital and help investors deploy it faster and more reliably.
Methods
- De-risk financing through capacity building
- Secure consistent and predictable financing through insurance and frontloading
- Enable faster access to financing through accreditation
Enhance results-orientation
We embed outcomes, with a gender lens, into how capital is structured and rewarded.
Methods
- Embed a gender lens throughout the investment cycle
- Scale pay-for-performance schemes
- Identify opportunities for advance market commitments
The connection
Each path is engineered to close a real gap.
We do not pursue innovative finance for its own sake. Every tool we develop is built to address one or both of the two challenges that define development finance in West Africa.
Investment mismatch
- Lack of technical capability and knowledge
- Weak innovation and investment infrastructure
Gender inequality
- Inconsistent access to and control of capital
- Unfocused earmarked development aid
