Development finance
Development finance determines how much risk reduction and recovery poorer countries can afford; the systemic questions are the cost of capital, the mix of concessional and private money, and contingent finance for shocks.
- Institution
- The Global Centre for Risk and Innovation (GCRI)
- Service level
- R0: information and enquiries
The short answer.
Development finance as a field covers the public and blended finance that development institutions provide for countries' investment, and the evidence and safeguards that it requires. In the Nexus Consortium it is studied as science at GCRI by Nexus Agency and Economic Development, governed at GRF by Capital Nexus, and understood financially at GRA by Development Finance Nexus and Disaster Risk Finance; this gateway links those platforms and the methods they share.
The field, seen three ways.
Financial understanding
Development Finance Nexus, Disaster Risk Finance, Public Finance and Sovereign Debt
Capital that arrives before the shock.
Ex ante instruments (contingent credit, catastrophe bonds, risk pools, shock-responsive social protection) pay faster than post-disaster appeals, but they require risk analysis that the recipient trusts and data that can trigger them fairly. The science contribution is that analysis and its uncertainty, not the instrument.
Development finance references.
| Framework or body | What it governs or supplies |
|---|---|
| OECD DAC statistics | Official development assistance and other official flows |
| IFC Performance Standards | Environmental and social risk in private investment |
| Sendai Framework priority three | Investing in disaster risk reduction for resilience |
Science, governance and finance together.
At GCRI, Nexus Agency and Economic Development supply the analysis; the financial understanding sits on GRA's platforms listed below.
The methods behind the field.
- Systems engineering
- Decision analysis under uncertainty
- Economics and development economics
- Econometrics
- Causal inference and impact evaluation
- Network science and contagion
- Complex systems and agent-based modelling
- Financial economics and macro-finance
- Policy, institutional and decision science
- Geospatial information systems
- Agricultural, soil and food science
- Actuarial mathematics
- Forecasting and time-series analysis
- Scenario design and stress testing
Terms used on this page.
Each term as this page uses it. Where a standard-setting body defines the term, the wording follows that body.
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Debt sustainability | A government's ability to meet its current and future debt obligations without exceptional financing or a major correction, as the IMF assesses it. |
| Development finance | Public and concessional finance from development banks, agencies and funds, together with the private finance they mobilise, for development goals. |
| Public investment management | The institutions and processes by which governments plan, allocate and implement public capital spending. |
| Contingent liability | An obligation that becomes due only if a particular event occurs, such as a guarantee being called or a disaster striking. |
Where this page's references lead.
The bodies and documents this page is read against. Status and editions change; each link goes to the issuing body.
Questions and answers.
Why does GCRI host field gateways?
Around GCRI.
Start with an enquiry.
The current service level is R0: information and enquiries. An enquiry receives a reference and names the next step; applications, payments, compute allocations and registrations open only when their team, terms and review capacity exist.