Project Spotlight: USAID’s Development Credit Authority Financial Sector Project
As a global pioneer in the field of enabling international development projects, QED Group is committe towards bringing new approaches and strategic solutions that lead to realization of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Our Sustainable Investing practice is one of our many such initiatives towards reaching this objective. By catalyzing private sector investments, we aim to maximize the efficiency and impact of development projects globally to drive better outcomes.
Staying true to this vision, QED Group has managed and implemented the USAID Development Credit Authority (DCA)’s Financial Sector Strengthening and Support Activity (Financial Sector Project) to aid in the development of sustainable private sector investing between the public and private sectors. The project staffed key positions in DCA to advance the effectiveness and efficiencies of the office. These steps helped bring in private sector professionals to provide a much-needed business approach to the technical challenges of providing credit guarantees.
The QED project team supported impact investing at USAID and contributed in:
- Finding a way to partner with one of the largest fixed income impact investors to provide a guarantee that supports women and children;
- Structuring an innovative investment approach for a new impact investor for the team to better balance their risk and return, and finally invest in the climate finance sector;
- Leading the structuring and support of an innovative investment approach to attract diaspora investment into the impact investing space;
- Providing the first-of-its-kind guarantee to support an impact investing fund in the sustainable fisheries sector;
- Leading the development of USAID’s first-ever initiative to support Development Impact Bonds through the global health sector; and
- Providing technical expertise to support the first-ever Women’s Livelihood Bond in Asia.
Additionally, the DCA Financial Sector Project has made positive contributions to the DCA office itself within USAID. Most notably, the project team has led the creation and structuring of the most innovative transactions in DCA history, including the first-ever Securitization in Armenia. Other areas that the team focused on include providing thought leadership and technical expertise for all employees at DCA; leading the legal and risk negotiations for the most complex, innovative, or highly structured transactions; and managing project development and due diligence for guarantees globally. QED staff were instrumental in conducting work for DCA’s Portfolio Management, including playing the key role in managing the monitoring of DCA’s most structured and innovative guarantees, which included several impact investor partners.
At QED, we strive and aim to capacitate organizations and their project teams through Sustainable Investing. We believe that creating scalable impact investments can be singularly instrumental in realizing the global developmental needs.
Read more about QED’s Sustainable Investing work. Get in touch with Eric Benschoter, QED’s Director of Strategic Markets, to explore how our Sustainable Investing team can help you realize your development or business goals.