Interview, Podcast, Webinar
02 March 2026
Balancing the Scales: Impact, Gender & Blended Finance in Emerging Markets
In:
Social projects
In this special International Women’s Day edition of Uxolo: In-Depth With, Jessica Brown sits down with Veronika Giusti Keller, Head of Impact, and Alessandra Nibbio, Head of Blended Finance, at BlueOrchard.
Together, they explore how impact measurement, gender-smart investing, and blended finance structures are being intentionally designed to rebalance capital flows toward women and underserved communities across emerging markets.
From theory of change frameworks and impact scorecards to private sector co-creation and insurance investor mobilisation, the conversation provides a practical look at what it truly takes to “balance the scales” in development finance.
Balancing Capital Allocation
- Where do today’s biggest imbalances in global capital flows lie?
- Why emerging markets — particularly Africa and Latin America — remain structurally underserved.
- How DFIs and MDBs are reshaping risk perception.
Gender as a Core Investment Objective
- Why gender cannot be an afterthought.
- Embedding gender KPIs into due diligence and escalation frameworks.
- Moving from intention to measurable outcomes.
Blended Finance as a Toolkit
- Why blended finance is not an asset class, but an instrument.
- Involving private capital from the outset.
- Reducing time to market to accelerate impact.
Data as the Foundation
- The power of sex-disaggregated data.
- Impact scorecards and escalation triggers.
