Philanthropy: A Strategic Partner to Support Financing for Development and a Renewed Development Paradigm

Ahead of the Évian Summit, the French Presidency of the G7 has called for renewed international partnerships and solidarity amid profound strain on the global development system¹ (G7 French Presidency, 2026).

In this constrained and fragmented context, philanthropy, which contributed USD 68.2 billion to development in 2020-2023, is well positioned to become a key partner in the development galaxy. Its role was formally recognised for the first time at the Financing for Development 4 Conference’s Seville Commitment, which called on the sector to engage in catalytic capital initiatives and work more closely with public and private partners (UN DESA, 2025).

Against this background, the OECD’s network of Foundations Working for Development (netFWD) is joining forces with the Pact for Prosperity, People and the Planet (4P) to support a dialogue and a G7 Statement on how philanthropies, within their respective mandates and capacities, commit to support financing for development and a renewed development paradigm.

This High-Level Statement outlines a shared direction of travel on how philanthropy can commit to support: 

1. A new development narrative 

2. A more effective financial architecture

3. An empowerment approach

The French G7 Presidency has called for a new development narrative based on mutually beneficial international partnerships and a broad understanding of all relevant resources for development.

Philanthropy is key to shaping more trust-based international partnerships:

• At the 2025 Financing for Development 4 (FfD4) Conference, netFWD co-ordinated a Statement committing to structured dialogue with donors, Development Finance Institutions (DFIs), Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs) and partner countries.
•  Transparency remains essential. The OECD’s Centre on Philanthropy systematically collects and analyses comparable data on philanthropy’s contribution to development, strengthening visibility and alignment with instruments like Total Official Support for Sustainable Development (TOSSD) and enhancing philanthropy’s integration within the global financing architecture.

The 4P is also working to integrate philanthropy into its implementation processes:

• This builds on philanthropies’ contribution to the 2023 Summit on a New Financing Pact, where netFWD coordinated a joint communiqué signed by leading philanthropic organisations committing to support both climate and biodiversity, which was later cited by President Macron in his President’s summary.

The French G7 Presidency also emphasises reducing fragmentation and mobilising private resources amid constrained public finance.

Philanthropy contributes through catalytical capital and coordination:

• The Seville Commitment explicitly called on philanthropy to engage in catalytic capital initiatives, and since 2014, 18 percent of blended finance transactions recorded annually in Convergence’s database have involved at least one foundation (Convergence, 2024). Evidence highlights philanthropy’s role in de-risking transactions², however, efforts remain insufficiently coordinated and concentrated among large cross-border foundations, while domestic foundations are often excluded from blended finance mechanisms. 
• To address this, netFWD launched the OECD-supported 3D Data, Dialogue, Deals Meta Platform, a Seville Platform for Action initiative³ to improve data, coordination and co- investment, and is developing a Handbook on Blended Finance for Philanthropies to provide tools to establish a common language with finance institutions, clarify entry points and structure partnerships. Together, these initiatives support a more coherent financial architecture that reduces fragmentation and improves collaboration and the leverage of concessional resources.
• The 4P also advances this agenda through the 4P Eminent Persons Group (4P EPG) on Barriers to Investment in Emerging Markets and Developing Economies (EMDEs), which sits under the 4P’s coalition on private capital mobilization and risk. This high-level independent group of former policymakers, regulators, leaders from development finance institutions and private investors, launched by France and South Africa at FfD4, is generating new evidence on how financial frameworks, market practices and data availability shape investment outcomes in EMDEs. It focuses in particular on risk perception, the availability and comparability of data, and the treatment of risk mitigation instruments such as guarantees across the investment chain. Its report, scheduled for publication in November 2026, will help better understand factors that influence capital allocation decisions and identify practical pathways to mobilise private investment for development at scale, and inform ongoing discussions in international fora, including the G7 and G20. This work is directly relevant to philanthropic actors seeking to deploy catalytic capital more effectively by better aligning their interventions with the actual constraints affecting investment decisions.

The French Presidency highlights the need for stronger domestic foundations for growth and stability. Philanthropy can help reduce aid dependency by supporting domestic resource mobilisation, strengthening national financing systems and reinforcing institutional capacity.

Through its flexibility and proximity to communities, philanthropy has supported pilot initiatives in tax administration digitalisation, transparency mechanisms, innovation grants for fiscal reforms, and capacity-building for civil society and regional institutions engaged in public finance governance. These catalytic interventions help de-risk reform, strengthen administrative effectiveness, and improve tax morale, generating evidence that can be scaled nationally.

Philanthropy can also support national development banks and other domestic actors to align financing with country-led priorities. In 2022, foundations endorsed the Donor Statement on Supporting Locally Led Development (Hilton Foundation, 2024), committing to shift and share power, channel funding more directly and advocate for locally led approaches.

4P is also working to strengthen Domestic Resource Mobilisation through Global Solidarity Levies and the need to find new technical resources: The Global Solidarity Levies Taskforce (GSLTF) explores and promotes innovative taxation mechanisms aimed at generating an additional USD 100 billion for climate and development goals. The GSLTF seeks to generate feasible and scalable revenues by targeting specific sectors like fossil fuels and aviation.

In the context of the G7’s stated objectives on development and renewed partnerships, netFWD members, partners and the 4P community will build on existing efforts and reaffirm their commitment to: 

1.     Support efforts to advance a renewed development paradigm grounded in trust-based and mutually beneficial partnerships:

• Scale structured engagement with bilateral donors, multilateral development banks, and development finance institutions, including through participation in high-level commissions and strategic dialogues on the future of development co-operation, to align priorities, clarify roles and strengthen collective impact.
• Leverage netFWD as the platform to institutionalise philanthropy’s involvement in global policy discussions like the G7 and related multilateral processes. This includes structured engagement and knowledge exchange with other providers of development finance (i.e. governments, DFIs and MBDs), ensuring that philanthropic perspectives are reflected in the reform of the international development financing architecture.
• Engage in dialogue and knowledge-sharing related to the financing for development process and the Pact for Prosperity, People and Planet (4P), aligning philanthropic capital with commitments on debt sustainability, climate and nature finance, and the mobilisation of private investment.
• Strengthening transparency of philanthropic contributions to sustainable development through voluntary reporting to the OECD Creditor Reporting System and the OECD Centre on Philanthropy.
• Leverage the 3D Data, Dialogue, Deals (3D) Meta Platform to make blended finance work more effectively for philanthropy, by strengthening data coordination and structured dialogue while facilitating co-investment and risk-sharing opportunities with public and private partners.

2.     Actively support a more coherent and effective international financial architecture:

• Strengthening coordination between philanthropy, governments and development banks, reducing fragmentation, and clarifying respective roles within blended finance and co- investment structures.
• Explore opportunities across portfolios to use grants, guarantees and risk-sharing instruments to crowd in private capital, particularly in developing country contexts.
• Promote independent data collection and analysis on the potential for Public–Private–Philanthropy Partnerships in developing countries to improve transparency, reinforce accountability and unlock synergies across financing actors.

3.     Continue to collaborate with local actors to explore how to end aid dependency and support partner country empowerment:

• Support capacity-building and knowledge initiatives related to domestic resource mobilisation, including tax system digitalisation, transparency mechanisms and public finance governance reforms to support the long-term sustainability of national financing systems.
• Position both philanthropy as a strategic partner within national development finance ecosystems, including collaboration with national development banks and regional institutions.
• Reinforce commitments to locally led development by shifting and sharing power, channelling high-quality funding more directly to local actors and scaling support through locally based re-granting organisations.

[1] Developing countries’ debt outflows reached a 50 year high between 2022 and 2024 (World Bank, 2025). Concessional finance is contracting, with official development assistance (ODA) projected to fall by an additional 9 to 17% in 2025 (OECD, 2025) and the development finance gap could reach 6.4 trillion by 2030 (OECD, 2025).

[2] Examples include: Argidius Foundation’s USD 900,000 grant to KCB Bank in Kenya (GSG; Centre for Development Finance Studies, 2025), Rockefeller’s engagement in Mission 300’s efforts to expand electricity coverage across Africa (Rockefeller, n.d.), and the MacArthur Foundation’s USD 25 million guarantee to the SDG Loan Fund (Convergence, 2023).

[3] OECD netFWD convened the third Africa Philanthropy Day, 'Co-Investing in Africa’s Future: Aligning Philanthropy with Domestic Resource Mobilisation', at the OECD Headquarters in Paris. Held back-to-back with the OECD–African Union Commission International Economic Forum on Africa. The agenda proposed five dedicated workshops aligned with the Dialogue aspect of the '3D' model. Covering different thematic areas, the workshops highlighted opportunities to engage in Public-Private-Philanthropy Partnerships for domestic resource mobilisation and locally led development.

About OECD netFWD

The OECD Network of Foundations Working for Development (netFWD) has been convening leaders in philanthropy, OECD experts, and policymakers for over a decade to share ideas and incubate solutions to pressing development challenges. netFWD provides a privileged forum for dialogue and collaboration, contributes to new thinking on development and philanthropic strategies, and brings the voice of foundations into international development debates. netFWD members work on a wide range of sectors and on cross-sectoral issues, such as education, health, gender, and climate.

With members across the world, including foundations from Brazil, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE as well as partners in Latin America, Africa, and Asia, netFWD is well-placed to facilitate dialogue between philanthropic actors and policymakers, and to raise the voice of philanthropic organisations working in the Global South and from the Global South.

The Pact for Prosperity, People and the Planet (4P) is a global coalition that brings together over 70 countries from all continents and income levels, to promote a fairer and more effective international financial architecture.

Launched by world leaders at the Summit for a New Global Financing Pact hosted by French President Macron in June 2023, the 4P aims to overcome traditional cleavages and mobilise the international community around a unified agenda for a renewal of the international financial architecture.

The motto of the 4P,  ‘no country should have to choose between fighting poverty and saving the planet’, provides a compass for the reform of the international financial architecture, placing at the core of the reform an integrated approach that reconciles development, climate and nature.

Overall, the 4P is guided by four core principles:

1. No country should have to choose between fighting poverty and saving the planet.

2. Every country adopts its own transition strategy, taking into account its needs and its constraints when it comes to achieving the Paris agreement target.

3. We need a financial stimulus and more resources to assist vulnerable economies in helping their population out of poverty, while protecting the planet.

4. The international financial system must be more efficient, and the role of private capital is key.

The above statement has been endorsed by the following organisations: