Development finance impact project for the online course developed by the Worldbank on SDCs.

1. Development Finance Impact Project – Digital Artifact
1. Aim of this paper
To write about something important that I have learned during this course about financing
for development or to propose a financing solution to a development problem you are
aware of in your professional or community context.
2. Target audience
With this paper I target general audience among development aid community as well as
larger audience.
3. Chosen topic
How to unlock large amount of investments from private sector companies in order to
help the poorest in Bangladesh
4. Key facts
The country chosen for this assignment is Bangladesh. Bangladesh is a South Asian country
counting more than 160 million inhabitants, making it the eight’s most populous country of
the world and also one of the most densely populated. Bangladesh is a country belonging to
the Low Income Country (LICs) with a Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of USD 1,314 or after
purchasing power parity adjustment (PPP) of USD 3,581 per year. Entrepreneurship is highly
present in Bangladesh. Individuals and private companies are very responsive to
opportunities. The large population of Bangladesh and its low development leads to virtually
unlimited opportunities.
5. Main constraints
Main constraints for the private sector companies in investing in better reaching poor people
and giving access to the market to them are mainly: - Low innovation capacity, - insufficient
personal resource and especially insufficient knowledge of the poors.
6. Proposed solution
Challenge funds and Partnership Grants are relatively unknown in Bangladesh. Projects such
as Katalyst (www.katalyst.com.bd) have developed an innovation fund (http://innovation-
bd.com/) to which any company or individual can participate, sending its business
proposition and how Katalyst can help in it. Katalyst has a large pool of staff with
specialisation in helping poor people through involvement of private sector partners in
different sectors such as maize, vegetables, farmed fish etc. If the proposal is interesting and
can improve the life of the people, the project may participate to the costs and also give its
expertise. This kind of project may be institutionalised or replicated in order to unlock larger
amounts of money to provide better market access to poors and improve their lives.