Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) · Impact-Linked Finance Wholesale Facility Study

Market Consultation & Expression of Interest

SCC Partners (trading name for Strategic Climate Capital Ltd) has been engaged by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) to conduct the Impact-Linked Finance (ILF) Wholesale Facility Study, a research and advisory mandate exploring how a wholesale blended finance facility can be designed to mobilise private capital for sustainable and inclusive development at scale.

Impact-Linked Finance refers to financial instruments in which returns, pricing, or terms are explicitly tied to verified impact outcomes. Unlike conventional impact investing, ILF creates direct financial incentives for impact performance, aligning the interests of investors, intermediaries, and beneficiaries around measurable social and environmental results.

The study will assess the market landscape for ILF, benchmark existing facility structures across development finance and impact investing, and develop actionable design recommendations for a wholesale mechanism capable of channelling capital through fund managers and financial intermediaries to high-impact enterprises and projects, particularly in emerging and frontier markets.

As part of this mandate, SCC Partners is conducting a structured market consultation to gather perspectives from across the impact finance ecosystem. Your input will directly inform the facility design recommendations presented to SDC. We welcome expressions of interest from organisations wishing to participate in interviews, provide written input, or join a stakeholder roster for ongoing engagement.

Proposed concept

From bespoke transactions to a scalable model

Impact-Linked Finance links financial incentives to the achievement of verified development and climate outcomes. Despite growing interest, implementation remains fragmented: most transactions are structured case by case, with limited opportunities for scale. A wholesale facility would pool and standardise concessional terms once, deploy capital through established funds and partners rather than originating deal by deal, and build the foundations for a broader ILF market over time.

Standardise once
Pool concessional terms and outcome structures centrally, rather than renegotiating them transaction by transaction.
Leverage existing ecosystems
Deploy through funds, programmes, and implementing partners, drawing on established pipelines and local market expertise.
Build toward scale
Standardise impact incentives, attract co-investors, and create a pathway to a larger ILF market over time.
Indicative structure

A co-GP wholesale facility

Consultation feedback points toward a wholesale facility model, deploying a mix of impact-linked instruments through implementing partners under a co-GP structure. The mandate is anchored in adaptation and resilience, the segment most under-served by commercial capital, with headroom to extend across other climate themes such as decarbonisation and food and agriculture. Final structure, allocation, and instrument selection will be confirmed through ongoing consultation and additionality analysis.

Instrument toolkit

Impact-linked instruments under consideration

Instruments that tie the borrower's cost of capital, or a donor outcome payment, to independently verified impact. Final selection will follow consultation feedback and additionality analysis.

Outcome-linked lending
Debt financing in which pricing or repayment terms are linked to verified development or climate outcomes.
Impact-indexed loans, sustainability-linked loans, interest-rate step-downs.
Outcome-linked incentives
Grant or concessional payments that reward the achievement of predefined impact outcomes.
Outcome payments, interest rebates, principal reductions.
Outcome-linked risk sharing
Risk-sharing mechanisms linked to impact performance, to mobilise additional private capital and de-risk investment.
First-loss capital, portfolio guarantees, credit enhancement.
Other structures
Additional approaches being tested through consultation alongside technical assistance and anchor capital.
Revenue-sharing, outcome-linked equity, performance-based TA.

Co-GPs and implementing partners

As part of the consultation, SCC Partners is speaking with prospective co-GPs, fund managers, and implementing partners who could help deploy a wholesale ILF facility through their pipelines and local expertise. If your organisation could play that role, we would welcome a conversation as part of the study. Select "Co-GP / implementing partner" below.

Your details will be used solely for the purposes of this study.

Thank you for registering

We will be in touch shortly.