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Finnfund blog

Finnfund blog consists of articles by our experts and guest stars on various themes around development finance, developing countries and sustainable investing aiming to find solutions to global challenges.

Seeking significant positive impacts in addition to financial return

Markus Pietikäinen

OP Finnfund Global Impact Fund I is the first global emerging markets impact fund in Finland. The fund targets significant positive impacts on, for instance, climate change, food security, gender equality and the availability of financing. As someone who has been keeping a close eye on the global impact investment market, I foresee substantial growth […]

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The fascinating (and long) journey of our human rights approach

Sylvie Fraboulet-Jussila

Building a human rights due diligence approach for a development financier like Finnfund is a long and fascinating journey. It’s not only about building systems and developing processes but about building people and changing the thinking. It has also been a journey for me. This blog is not about me, but given that I have […]

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2020: Lessons learned, challenges tackled

Jaakko Kangasniemi

When I stepped off the plane in Nairobi on 3 February, I felt something was wrong. I’ve been to Nairobi more times than I can count, but never has the airport been so empty. I was on my way to the first Cheetah’s Roundtable event where Africa’s most promising, fast-growing agribusiness companies (the “Cheetahs”) would […]

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Climate change adaptation = investment?

Anne Arvola

Climate change adaptation in private sector financing – but how do you define adaptation and make it an investment case? Despite all the available information and commitments made for climate change mitigation, the outcomes and trends do not look very promising. Our window to remain below 1.5oC, or even 2oC global temperature increases is becoming […]

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COVID-19 underlines the need for accessible healthcare

Markus Pentikäinen

I was invited as one of the panelists to attend a webinar about healthcare investments in Africa. The main question there was how the ongoing pandemic has reshaped the healthcare investment landscape.  Some things may have changed during this very exceptional year but in my opinion, most things have not. We are a long-term impact […]

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The youth has found their voice – next, they need opportunities

Minna Kuusisto

“This is a message to the government,” starts Bobi Wine his song Freedom. Besides from being a popular reggae artist, Ugandan Robert Kyagulanyi, better known as Bobi Wine, is the number one challenger to the 76-year–old Yoweri Museveni in Uganda’s upcoming presidential election in January. Long-ruling Museveni has such a great power across his country’s institutions that Mr. Kyagulanyi has a slim chance of winning but his achievements in mobilizing the Ugandan youth are […]

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Beyond avoided emissions, DFIs seek carbon removals

Kenneth Söderling

For quite some time, it has been acknowledged that global CO2 emissions need to be reduced to avoid the catastrophic effects of climate change. Today, many companies, development finance institutions (DFIs) and other investors operating in developing countries are increasingly interested in tracking their CO2 emissions and taking action to reduce them. However, lack of […]

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Ticking boxes or setting goals? Gender lens investing is a dialogue

Kaisa Alavuotunki

Finnfund has since April 2019 invested over 121 million euros in companies that promote women’s empowerment in developing countries. I stopped to think what we have achieved in the past two years: We have joined two gender finance communities, implemented gender equality issues into our investment process through our gender statement and participated in defining […]

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Oh sustainability, how I hate (and love) you!

Päivi Lehtonen

Oh sustainability, how I hate you! But only on the days when I look at the world and feel despondent and think that we should be accomplishing so much more. We should achieve better and more visible results to improve the state of the environment. And don’t get me started on social responsibility and equality. […]

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Can big data analytics help us to make better investment decisions?

Karoliina Lindroos

Big data analytics can and should support investors´ environmental and social analysis. These analytics can increase both the efficiency and the quality of analysis because they allow mass data gathering to highlight key risks, while human capacity is directed into analysis of most material risks to people and the environment and the actions needed. In […]

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