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Freedom251 › Blog › blended finance

How countries can diversify infrastructure financing beyond a single partner

By Freedom251 Team · · 9 min read

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Countries can reduce the danger of relying on one infrastructure financier by combining domestic revenue and savings with local-currency markets, several multilateral and regional development banks, bilateral agencies, private investors and carefully designed blended-finance instruments. The sequence matters: set a country-led financing strategy first, then match projects to the sources whose currency, tenor, safeguards and risk-sharing terms fit.

Why single-partner financing creates strategic risk

A single lender can provide useful scale and coordination, but concentration leaves a country exposed to one institution’s eligibility rules, procurement system, currency, political priorities and disbursement schedule. A change in that partner’s budget or risk appetite can delay an entire project pipeline. If most obligations are ultimately guaranteed by the sovereign, adding nominally different intermediaries does not remove the concentration.

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Infrastructure needs are large enough that no single channel can reliably fill the gap. The UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs’ Financing for Sustainable Development Report 2024 puts the additional annual investment requirement for developing countries at about $4 trillion. Diversification is therefore a capacity-building exercise, not simply a search for another loan.

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Begin with a country financing strategy

An integrated national financing framework (INFF), or an equivalent national process, should map the investment pipeline before individual ministries negotiate with lenders. UNDP reports that 13 national or subnational governments have operational financing strategies and that more than 50 countries are implementing reforms shaped through INFF processes. The framework should connect infrastructure priorities to the following constraints and objectives:

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  • Fiscal space, debt limits and existing contingent liabilities.
  • Domestic tax, user-fee and other recurring revenues.
  • Available household, pension-fund, insurance and bank savings.
  • Climate, resilience and inclusion targets.
  • Project-level cash flows, currency and refinancing needs.
  • The roles that public, development and private capital can realistically play.

The result should be a ranked, costed pipeline with a financing plan for each project. A ministry can then compare offers on a common basis rather than accepting the first institution willing to lend.

Set decision rules before approaching financiers

Governments should publish minimum tests for affordability, value for money, climate and social safeguards, local employment, disclosure and procurement. A financing offer that fails one of these tests should not move ahead merely because it is fast or nominally cheap. The rules also make negotiations more credible when several institutions are invited to compete.

Strengthen domestic and local-currency finance

Domestic resources provide the first layer of diversification. Better tax and fee collection, predictable utility tariffs and stronger public-investment management can reduce the amount that must be borrowed. Transparent project accounts and reliable payment systems also make infrastructure revenue more investable.

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The World Bank identifies local credit and capital markets as ways to address currency risk and long-term financing constraints. Local borrowing is not automatically cheaper, but matching the currency of debt to the currency of project revenues can prevent a depreciation from multiplying debt-service costs. This is especially important for transport, water or power assets whose income is collected in local currency.

Build a market that can lend for infrastructure’s full life

Commercial banks often cannot provide very long maturities because the duration of their deposits and other liabilities does not match infrastructure assets. Governments can address that mismatch by developing longer-dated government and municipal bonds, enabling pension and insurance investment, improving credit information and creating credible project-bond standards. Credit-enhancement facilities can help an issuer reach the market without transferring every risk to the sovereign.

Local-currency capacity should include hedging and refinancing plans. A project with a 20-year life but five-year floating-rate debt may face a larger refinancing shock than a project with a higher initial rate and a fixed, longer tenor. Every appraisal should show the effect of interest-rate, inflation and exchange-rate scenarios on both the project and the public balance sheet.

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Use a portfolio of development institutions

Countries can combine global multilateral development banks (MDBs), regional MDBs, bilateral development-finance institutions, export-credit agencies and national development banks. Each should be assessed against the same criteria rather than selected by reputation alone.

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Financing source Potential contribution Terms and risks to compare
Global MDB Sovereign lending, guarantees, policy support and private-sector windows Tenor, grace period, currency, safeguards, procurement and sovereign exposure
Regional MDB Regional expertise, co-financing and projects that cross borders Currency, country limits, preparation capacity and coordination with other lenders
Bilateral DFI or export-credit agency Debt, equity, guarantees and supplier or technology finance Concessionality, tied-procurement rules, political-risk terms and disclosure
National development bank Local-currency lending, project preparation and domestic co-investment Funding base, governance, concentration and any implicit state guarantee
Commercial bank or institutional investor Senior debt, bonds and long-term savings Credit enhancement, refinancing, interest-rate basis and demand risk

Co-financing can also divide responsibilities. One institution may fund a feasibility study, another may provide a sovereign loan, and a guarantee facility may cover a political or payment risk that private lenders cannot accept. The government should retain a single disclosure and monitoring register so that overlapping conditions and hidden liabilities are visible.

Prepare projects so private capital can participate

Private investors do not diversify a financing plan merely because a private company appears in the ownership chart. They need a bankable project with defined rights, reliable information and a return that matches the risks. Before seeking private capital, the public sponsor should standardize:

  • Demand, engineering and environmental studies, including independent review.
  • Land acquisition, permits, utility connections and responsibilities for delays.
  • Tariff formulas, affordability measures and payment-collection rules.
  • Concession, offtake or availability-payment contracts.
  • Change-in-law, termination, force-majeure and dispute-resolution provisions.
  • Procurement, beneficial-ownership disclosure and financial reporting.

Project-preparation support is often the highest-value public contribution. It can turn an uncertain concept into a transaction that several investors can price, rather than asking investors to fund basic studies themselves.

Use blended finance for specific, measurable risks

Blended finance combines public, philanthropic or MDB capital with private equity and debt. The public layer should address a clearly identified barrier, not conceal an uneconomic project. Instruments include grants for preparation, guarantees, first-loss layers, subordinated debt and concessional tranches.

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Infrastructure Monitor 2025, drawing on the Convergence database, reports that infrastructure blended-finance deals during 2021–2023 mobilized about 40% of private capital for every $1 of public or philanthropic money. That ratio is an aggregate observation, not a promise for an individual project; mobilization varies with country risk, sector, currency and transaction design.

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Allocate risks to the party best able to manage them

  • Construction risk: fixed-price or performance-backed contracts, independent supervision and contingency funding.
  • Demand risk: carefully calibrated availability payments or targeted guarantees where usage is socially valuable but uncertain.
  • Currency risk: local-currency debt, indexed tariffs where affordable, or a specifically priced hedging facility.
  • Political and regulatory risk: political-risk insurance, breach-of-contract cover or an MDB guarantee.
  • Affordability risk: transparent subsidies funded through the budget rather than opaque tariff promises.

Each support instrument should have a ceiling, expiry or step-down feature where practical. Otherwise a temporary subsidy can become a permanent public liability.

Guarantees can crowd in investors—but remain public liabilities

OECD materials identify government guarantees, equity stakes, concessional debt and risk-sharing facilities as tools for climate-resilient infrastructure. MDB guarantees and private-sector windows can complement sovereign loans by covering defined payment, political or completion risks.

A guarantee should be recorded at its maximum plausible exposure, not only at the fee received. The finance ministry should model probability of call, recovery value, exchange-rate effects and correlation with other guarantees. A project whose debt is guaranteed by the state may be legally private but economically sovereign borrowing; it should be counted in debt and fiscal-risk reports on that basis.

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Evaluate resource-backed and other complex structures cautiously

Linking repayment to future mineral, oil, agricultural or other resource revenues can appear to expand borrowing capacity, but it transfers valuation, price and production risk to the public. Contracts may also be difficult for citizens and legislatures to inspect.

Akinwumi Adesina, president of the African Development Bank, summarized the central valuation problem: “They are just bad, first and foremost, because you can’t price the assets properly.” Any resource-linked commitment should therefore disclose the asset valuation method, production assumptions, price scenarios, repayment waterfall, security package, termination rights and independent review. If the terms cannot be published and stress-tested, the structure has not passed a transparency test.

Apply a debt-and-value-for-money gate to every project

Before financial close, an independent team should stress-test at least:

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  • Exchange-rate depreciation and convertibility restrictions.
  • Higher interest rates, floating-rate resets and refinancing failure.
  • Lower demand, delayed construction and cost overruns.
  • Inflation, tariff affordability and political decisions that cap revenue.
  • Termination payments, guarantees, public-private partnership obligations and other contingent liabilities.
  • Climate hazards that interrupt operations or require additional capital.

The appraisal should compare lifecycle cost, not just the headline interest rate. It should also show who bears residual risk after grants, guarantees and insurance. A loan with a low coupon can be poor value if it has short tenor, a foreign-currency mismatch or expensive refinancing.

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Measure whether diversification is genuine

Use a financing scorecard for every alternative. The relevant questions are:

  1. What is the total lifecycle cost, including preparation, hedging, guarantees and termination?
  2. What currency are revenues and debt in, and who absorbs a devaluation?
  3. What are the tenor, grace period, amortization profile and fixed-versus-floating rate?
  4. What sovereign guarantees or contingent liabilities are created?
  5. What procurement, transparency, climate and social safeguards apply?
  6. How quickly can funds be committed and disbursed, and what preparation support is included?
  7. Does the structure create local suppliers, skills and employment without sacrificing value for money?
  8. How much private capital is additional because of the public intervention, rather than capital that would have invested anyway?

Publish the material terms of loans, guarantees and resource-linked commitments. A country should not claim diversification when several funds are simply passing through the same sovereign guarantee or when one partner still controls the currency, procurement and refinancing risk.

A practical sequencing plan

  1. Map the portfolio: rank projects by development impact, readiness, climate resilience and ability to generate reliable revenue.
  2. Set the fiscal envelope: establish debt, guarantee and annual-payment limits before soliciting offers.
  3. Prepare projects: fund feasibility, land, permits, safeguards and contract design to a common standard.
  4. Build the domestic layer: improve revenue collection, local bonds, institutional-investor rules and credit enhancement.
  5. Run a structured market sounding: invite multiple MDBs, regional institutions, bilateral agencies and private investors to respond to the same data room.
  6. Design risk sharing: use grants, guarantees or subordinated capital only for priced, documented risks.
  7. Compare offers on a lifecycle basis: include currency, refinancing, contingent liabilities, safeguards and local-content effects.
  8. Disclose and monitor: publish contracts and update a public register of debt, guarantees and project performance.

Common failure modes and corrective actions

Choosing the fastest loan

Problem: speed eclipses affordability, procurement quality or long-term currency risk. Correction: apply the same debt-and-value-for-money gate to every offer and disclose the reason for selecting one.

Counting intermediaries instead of reducing exposure

Problem: several vehicles remain backed by one sovereign guarantee or one foreign currency. Correction: map ultimate creditors, guarantors, currencies and refinancing dates.

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Using concessional money without an exit plan

Problem: a subsidy supports a tariff or technology that cannot survive after the subsidy ends. Correction: define the risk being covered, a ceiling and a step-down or sunset condition.

Underestimating preparation

Problem: weak studies and unclear land or tariff rules make private bids expensive or impossible. Correction: fund preparation first and use standard contracts, disclosure and independent review.

Hiding contingent liabilities

Problem: guarantees, termination payments or resource pledges sit outside the headline debt figure. Correction: publish a fiscal-risk statement with maximum exposure and stress results.

What successful diversification looks like

A resilient financing system has several independent pillars: domestic revenue and savings, a functioning local-currency market, multiple development institutions, prepared projects and private capital that is genuinely additional. The pillars reinforce one another. Better project preparation lowers the amount of concessional support required; local-currency markets reduce exchange-rate risk; transparent guarantees make private participation easier to price; and a country-led strategy keeps each transaction aligned with debt limits and development goals.

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The objective is not to maximize the number of lenders. It is to secure infrastructure on terms that remain affordable under stress, preserve policy space and make risks visible to citizens, investors and future governments.

Frequently Asked Questions

How many financing partners should a country use?

There is no universal target. The appropriate mix depends on the project pipeline, debt capacity, currency of revenues and the risk each institution can genuinely absorb. A country should diversify ultimate sources of capital and risk, not simply add intermediaries.

Is local-currency borrowing always preferable to foreign-currency debt?

No. Local markets may have shorter maturities or higher rates, and inflation can still raise costs. Local currency is most valuable when project revenues are also local-currency and the government has a credible plan for tenor, refinancing and inflation risk.

When is blended finance justified?

When a specific, documented risk prevents an otherwise sound project from attracting private capital. The public contribution should be limited, priced, transparent and linked to measurable additional investment rather than used to mask weak demand or poor contracts.

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Why can a guarantee undermine diversification?

Because a private or development loan backed by the sovereign can leave taxpayers bearing the same economic risk as direct public borrowing. Guarantees must be recorded, stress-tested and included in the country’s contingent-liability limits.

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blended financedebt sustainabilitydevelopment financeinfrastructure financelocal-currency financepublic-private partnerships

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