2016-SDG-2

Speakers:

Edward Jackson Ed. D, President, E. T. Jackson and Associates Ltd

Anita Bhatia, Director for Development Partner Relations, World Bank Group

Dean Segell,  Convergence

Jerry Quigley, Senior VP-Private Sector Development, MEDA

David O'Brien, IDRC

Objective:

Financing for Development:  Mobilizing and Deploying New Capital for Poverty Reduction

The United Nations has estimated that, in addition to ODA and local tax revenue, up to $2.5 trillion in private investment will be needed annually to implement the SDGs.  Rather than being subject to elite capture, waste or corruption in either the North or South, how can this new capital be mobilized and deployed for poverty reduction in the households, communities and regions that need it most, and at a scale that makes a real difference?  Two strategies that hold considerable promise in this regard are impact investing and blended finance.  The former involves investments that are intentionally designed to achieve a social or environmental impact as well as a financial return.  The latter refers to the use public or philanthropic funds to lever and target private capital for development interventions.  In this panel session, experts in these fields will speak to the question of how new forms of finance can be designed to contribute to poverty reduction, what the challenges are in doing so, and what new investment structures, products and platforms are available now to help make this happen.  A facilitated discussion will follow the panel’s remarks.

Biography(ies):

Mr. Edward Jackson, President, E. T. Jackson and Associates Ltd

Edward Jackson is President of E. T. Jackson and Associates Ltd., a Senior Research Fellow at Carleton University and an Honorary Associate at the Institute of Development Studies.  He has worked extensively on innovative finance and its evaluation, advising the Rockefeller Foundation, the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, NGOs, governments and universities in Canada, the US, Ghana and South Africa, and has published widely on field-building and evaluation in impact investing. Over a long career, he has worked in more than 50 countries on all continents, serving as a consultant to, among others, the Canadian Labour Congress, Global Affairs Canada, IDRC, MasterCard Foundation, Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, and World Bank.  A former associate dean and tenured faculty member at Carleton University, he co-founded the Carleton-World Bank International Program for Development Evaluation Training.  Also a co-founder of the McLeod Group, he is a member of the board of directors of the Diamond Development Initiative (Canada) and the editorial advisory board of the Journal of Sustainable Finance and Investment.  E. T. Jackson and Associates is a founding member of CAIDP.  

Anita Bhatia, Director for Development Partner Relations, World Bank Group

Ms. Anita Bhatia is the World Bank Group Director for Development Partner Relations. In this role her team supports strategic engagement and relationship management with the WBG’s funding partners.

Ms. Bhatia joined IFC in June 2003 as a Senior Private Sector Development Specialist in the Small and Medium Enterprise Department based in Bolivia. In November 2003, she was appointed General Manager of the Latin America Technical Assistance Facility based in Peru, where she oversaw the creation of IFC’s Advisory Services in Latin America. In 2006, IFC’s Executive Vice President and CEO appointed her head of IFC’s first change management office. In 2008, she was appointed IFC’s first Global Head of Knowledge, where she oversaw the knowledge management efforts in the Corporation.

In 2011 she was appointed IFC’s Director for Partnerships and Advisory Services Operations, where she was responsible for IFC’s global development partner relations, as well as building the operational infrastructure for portfolio management, risk management, financial operations and trust fund management for IFC Advisory Services. In 2014 she was appointed to a joint World Bank IFC position covering Development Partner Relations for the full World Bank Group, a position she currently holds. Ms. Bhatia has extensive regional experience having worked in Africa, Central Asia, and Latin America.

Prior to joining IFC, Ms. Bhatia held a number of positions in consulting and in development. She is the author of the book “Privatization in Africa” and several articles and monographs on key issues in private sector development. Ms. Bhatia, an Indian national, holds a BA in History from Calcutta University, an MA in Political Science from Yale University, and a Juris Doctor from Georgetown Law School.
 

Mr. Jerry Quigley, Senior VP-Private Sector Development, MEDA

Jerome (Jerry) Quigley is a graduate in economics and development studies from the University of Guelph.  For the past 25 years, he has worked in various management positions with Mennonite Economic Development Associates (MEDA). Jerry is currently Senior Vice President of Private Sector Development at MEDA, providing oversight to MEDA’s Financial Services, Impact Investing, Agriculture and Health Market Linkages projects worldwide. He has served on several boards including several years as chair of the board of IMON microfinance bank in Tajikistan and Agro Capital Management (agricultural equipment leasing) in Ukraine. 

Mr. David O'Brien, IDRC

David O’Brien is a senior program specialist at the International Development Research Centre. At IDRC, he contributes to the technology and innovation program which supports the application of natural, life and social sciences to address social and environmental challenges. He also develops projects that strengthen the science policy and programming capacity of public research funding agencies in low and middle-income countries, and research that informs processes of technological change and innovation.

Before joining IDRC in 2006, he held senior management, advisory, and research positions at the University of Saskatchewan, New York University, and the University of Sussex, where he currently serves on the Board of Trustees for the Institute of Development Studies.  He holds a PhD and is a graduate of Wageningen University (Netherlands), University of Sussex (United Kingdom), and the University of British Columbia (Canada). His research interests include the political economy of business-state interaction, the organization of multilateral cooperation and science policy.

Dean Segell, Manager – New Products and Knowledge, Convergence

Dean Segell is a Manager at Convergence, responsible for Convergence’s fund for the design of innovative financial instruments as well as the platform's market and knowledge building tools. Prior to Convergence, he was a consultant at Dalberg Global Development Advisors in New York and Johannesburg. At Dalberg, Dean advised clients including JP Morgan, Gates, Rockefeller, MasterCard Foundation, and Global Affairs Canada on strategies across development finance, access to finance for smallholder farmers, SME development, and education and employment. He began his career in investment banking at Nedbank Capital in South Africa, where he was an equity derivatives trader.