UK development finance institution, British International Investment, has released its new five-year strategy. This has been developed to meet the challenges posed by a changing world, including shocks, interstate inequalities and climate change.

“Our mission remains unchanged: to improve lives by investing in the private sector across Africa and Asia,” assured BII. “But these new challenges mean how we deliver that mission must evolve.”

The new strategy reflected what the BII has learned over the past five years regarding where its money and knowledge were most effective and where it could achieve more in the future, as well as to allow it to meet the abovementioned global challenges. The new strategy incorporated three high-level changes.

“First, we will focus on the investments that matter most to development,” highlighted BII CEO Leslie Maasdorp (who is South African). “We will concentrate our resources on sectors that underpin economic transformation: resilient financial systems, sustainable industries that create jobs, and infrastructure that connects people, power, data and markets. And within those sectors, we aim to spark deeper, more lasting market-level change, so that these markets work better for the people they serve.”

The second shift would be a deeper commitment to frontier markets. He acknowledged that these were among the hardest locations to invest in, but, on the other hand, they were also places where its investment could have the biggest impact. A minimum of 25% of its future investments would be in UN-defined Least Developed Countries. These investments would be supported by policy engagement, technical assistance and the development of strong local partnerships.

Third, the agency would accelerate private capital investments into emerging markets, as public sector money, on its own, would not be able to address the challenges of today. The aim was to mobilise up to £7.5-billion of private capital, over the next five years. A part of this was BII’s new climate initiative, British Climate Partners, with a total value of £1.1-billion, to encourage private investment into the energy transition in Asia.

“Across all of this, impact remains central,” he affirmed. “We expect to make 40% of our new investments in climate finance, and 30% of our new core investments in gender finance. And we’ll do this while remaining financially sustainable, responsible stewards of UK taxpayers’ money, delivering both impact and long-term financial returns.”