Private sector support for achieving critical development goals is a huge opportunity for business

It’s difficult to understand an enormous number such as $2.5-trillion. To put it in context, it’s about the size of France’s economy — the seventh largest in the world.

The public sector, donors and philanthropists obviously have a big role to play in closing this financing gap. But so does the private sector. In fact, private sector investment in the sustainable development goals is a huge opportunity for business, one that could open up $1.1-trillion in market opportunities in Africa alone and make life-altering strides towards achieving critical goals.

There are a growing number of enablers that encourage investment in projects to advance development on the continent. In 2001 more than $81bn had been unlocked globally through blended finance deals — a mechanism that uses development finance and philanthropic funds to mobilise private capital flows. Though not all of this was channelled towards the very poor, a full quarter of this money was focused on improving financial inclusion, one of the indicators where we've seen impressive growth.

A great example of this is when a group of public and private organisations came together in 2012 to provide volume guarantees to two pharmaceutical companies Bayer and Merck. This allowed them to lower the price by up to 50%, making the products more affordable for the world’s poorest countries.

Just as the private sector is a key player in delivering infrastructure, it can also become a stronger player in other development priorities such as health. In 2018, $7.7bn was raised across the continent in public-private partnerships, almost triple the amount of the year before. Seeing the devastation caused by malaria on the continent — with 90% of cases occurring in Sub-Saharan Africa — South African entrepreneur and Nandos founder Robbie Brozin helped established the Goodbye Malaria campaign. Supported by corporate partners, the campaign is helping to reduce the malaria burden by catalysing on-the-ground elimination programmes. During the World Economic Forum, Goodbye Malaria pledged $5.

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