PLY: The Bill & Melinda Gates foundation tied in with a DIB against malaria – great stuff.
‘Malaria Bond’ Set To Play Innovative Role In Fundraising (subscription)
Sarah Murray – Financial Times
In January, the UK government and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announced funding of £3bn over the next five years for the battle against malaria. Such donor support will remain crucial, yet other and quite innovative forms of funding projects could also come to play a vital role.
One is the so-called development impact bond (DIB). The idea of issuing a DIB to raise money to fund the fight against malaria was born a few years ago. At that time, the Roll Back Malaria campaign engaged Dalberg, a global development consultancy, to structure a malaria bond and study its feasibility.
“We got the endorsement from Roll Back Malaria that this was an interesting model to test so we looked at how to pilot that in Mozambique,” says Barbara Kong, a senior investment principal at D. Capital Partners, the Dalberg subsidiary that has structured the bond.
The first malaria bond has yet to be issued but, with a goal of raising $3.5m, so far the bond has secured a commitment from Nandos, the restaurant chain, which has pledged funding of $1.5m.