Stockholm (NordSIP) – As the international community explores ways to reach the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs), the discussion invariably turns to finance. The scale of funding needed to address the climate, biodiversity, and other environmental or social crises is such that only a combination of public and private capital can hope to meet current and future needs. With this challenge in mind, the UN-sponsored Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development (FFD4) took place in Sevilla, Spain from 30 June to 3 July 2025.
On the opening day of the event, global leaders came together to launch a new Sevilla Platform for Action (SPA), designed to host more than 130 initiatives relating to the Sevilla Commitment jointly endorsed by the participating nations. The SPA aims to encourage moves to catalyse investments at scale, address debt challenges, and support architecture reform. Among the initiatives put forward thus far is the Joint Declaration on Partnership Opportunities between Institutional Investors and Multilateral Development Banks, which is supported by the governments of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom.
The main aim of the initiative is to help direct some of Europe’s €15 trillion worth of pension and insurance assets towards new scalable and investable opportunities created by Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs) and other Development Finance Institutions (DFIs). Bridging the gap between public and private finance has always required innovation to create frameworks and investment vehicles suitable for typical institutional needs, hence the participating nations’ collaboration with ILX Management (ILX), an Amsterdam-based asset manager specialising in global development finance co-investment strategies.
The ILX-led initiative was introduced to the FFD4 audience by a panel including Steven Collet, Vice Minister for Development at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands, Manfred Schepers, CEO of ILX, Christian Kleboth, Head of Debt Mobilisation at the EBRD, Ylva Lindberg, EVP Strategy and Communication at Norfund, and Ruud van der Helm, Strategic Policy Advisor at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs pf the Netherlands.
Vice Minister Collet explains that the current initiative is the culmination of many years of work and seeks to create a ‘common language’ between development finance organisations and institutional investors. He emphasises the need to create vehicles and asset classes that consider the specific requirements and duties of institutional investors like pension funds and insurance companies.
According to ILX CEO Schepers, the collaboration between the Nordic countries, the Netherlands, and the UK makes perfect sense as they all have well-funded and mature pensions and insurance industries: “The international development banks, which represent governments, and the pension funds in these countries share similar objectives of solid economies, financial health, but also a good planet for people. We saw an opportunity to bring these two together in a unique public / private partnership that is needed to fulfil the challenges of the SDGs, which are still far from being met.” Schepers reminds the FFD4 audience not only of the enormous international climate finance commitments that have already been made, but also that these will likely be greatly amplified at the forthcoming COP30 in Brazil later this year.
With the company having been formed three years ago Schepers refers to ILX as a relative ‘new kid on the block,’ which currently manages assets on behalf of institutions in the Netherlands and Denmark. However, with the launch of the SPA there will be significant inflows of capital from the other participating nations, which stand to be co-invested with MDBs and DFIs in Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Americas. According to Schepers, these opportunities offer important diversification benefits for pension schemes as well as competitive risk-adjusted returns. “These are huge steps, where I think we are at the birth of a new asset class,” says Schepers, adding “I don’t think this is another niche strategy, I believe this will become a core strategy. We approximate that the total savings in global pensions is somewhere between €50-75 trillion. Just a one per cent allocation will totally transform the system. It is not something we hope for but rather what is going to happen, and SPAs like this are at the heart of that impact.”
