Paris: OECD netFWD Annual Meeting
At this year’s OECD netFWD (Network of Foundations Working for Development) Annual Meeting in Paris, LEBEC Managing Director Rafia Qureshi moderated a dynamic conversation on one of the most urgent questions in global development: How can philanthropy step up—not just to fill funding gaps, but to shift systems?
The panel, “Partnerships and Co-Funding Mechanisms for System Change,” featured leaders who are putting bold ideas into action:
Sally Schuster, Regional Manager, International Markets, Latimpacto
Anna-Marie Harling, Managing Director, Philanthropic Collaboration, Co-Impact
The discussion explored how philanthropic actors are co-creating blended finance vehicles, pooled funds, and other catalytic capital structures to unlock private investment and scale impact—particularly in underfunded sectors such as water, health, and climate resilience.
“This wasn’t about why we need collaboration,” Rafia noted in her opening. “This was about the how.”
Panelists shared concrete examples—from Latimpacto’s use of recoverable grants in Latin America, to Co-Impact’s large-scale pooled funding strategies, to 4Life Solutions’ efforts to unlock donor-advised capital for market expansion.
Key takeaways included:
Catalytic capital should be measured by what it enables—not what it earns
Flexible, long-term funding is essential for systems-level change
Local ownership and shared risk are non-negotiables in fragile markets
As the global community approaches 2030, the tools and capital to drive systemic change are available. The challenge now lies in deploying them with greater speed, ambition, and collaboration.
LEBEC continues to advance this work by designing co-funding solutions that blend capital, shift power, and build sustainable impact from the ground up.
