Building Bridges

💡 Join us on 30 October 2025, from 16:00 to 17:00 CET for our webinar “Scaling Impact: Private Market Investing in Africa.” 🌍 Africa’s private markets are at a pivotal moment. With a young and rapidly expanding population, rising technology adoption, and urgent needs across infrastructure, healthcare, agriculture, and climate resilience, the continent presents investors with a unique chance to achieve both strong returns and meaningful impact. This webinar will bring together leading voices from across Africa’s private capital ecosystem including Abi Mustapha-Maduakor, MEng, CA, MBA, AVCA - The African Private Capital Association, Catherine Cax, Soros Economic Development Fund, Shruti Chandrasekhar, IFC - International Finance Corporation and Ann Wyman, AfricInvest Group — to discuss how #PrivateEquity, #VentureCapital, and #BlendedFinance are unlocking long-term value, driving growth, and addressing global challenges such as climate change and job creation. 🌿 🔗 Learn more and register here: https://lnkd.in/eRYy3epy

Future-Proofing the Global Economy: Aligning Finance with Resilience At this year’s Building Bridges conference in Geneva, WBCSD hosted a conversation on physical risk and value chain resilience, exploring how finance, insurance, and corporates can work together to manage and price physical risk more effectively. WBCSD President and CEO Peter Bakker and Fiona Watson, Vice President of Corporate Performance and Accountability, joined business and finance leaders to discuss how aligning finance with resilience is critical to future-proofing the global economy. As Peter noted in the recent Devex feature: “𝘐𝘧 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘥𝘰 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘵𝘢𝘬𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘴𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘰𝘶𝘴𝘭𝘺, 𝘪𝘧 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘥𝘰 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘨𝘦𝘵 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘢𝘳𝘮𝘴 𝘢𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘥 𝘱𝘩𝘺𝘴𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘭 𝘳𝘪𝘴𝘬, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘪𝘧 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘥𝘰 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘶𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘥𝘳𝘪𝘷𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘦𝘮𝘪𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴 𝘥𝘰𝘸𝘯, 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘦𝘳𝘰𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘱𝘦𝘵𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘯𝘦𝘴𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘵𝘳𝘺, 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘱𝘢𝘯𝘺, 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘣𝘢𝘯𝘬, 𝘰𝘳 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘪𝘵 𝘪𝘴 𝘺𝘰𝘶’𝘳𝘦 𝘳𝘶𝘯𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨.” In our workshop, “Driving Action on Physical Risk in Value Chains,” participants examined how physical impacts are already damaging global value chains, while limited visibility and inconsistent methodologies are leading to inefficient pricing and inadequate risk management. Experts from the insurance and finance sectors explored pathways for effective risk transfer and prevention, including parametric insurance, resilience bonds, and stronger public–private cooperation. The key takeaway is resilience is not just a safeguard. It's a source of competitive advantage and long-term value creation. Read the Devex feature: https://lnkd.in/etZsdQvT Download WBCSD’s CEO Handbook for Physical Risk and Resilience in Value Chains: https://lnkd.in/e74Q4vpA #BuildingBridges #PhysicalRisk #SustainableFinance #ValueChainResilience #WBCSD #Resilience #FutureProofFinance

Heading to the Trust Conference by the Thomson Reuters Foundation this week — always a most thoughtful gathering on media freedom, accountability and the public good. Looking forward to hearing from old friends like Styli C. and David Caswell, as well as others I've followed and admired from afar. If you’re there too, I’d love to reconnect — or meet for the first time. In my recent Africa Media Perspectives keynote (https://lnkd.in/dSmiQuJU) and panel at Building Bridges, I made the case that we need to move beyond simply saying journalism is good to showing how it does good — in ways that are social, environmental, and economic. That’s what we’re at the Media Innovation Studio are working on with the SILA 360° tool — part of the Sustainable Innovation and Leadership Accelerator — helping news organisations walk the talk by tracking their real-world impact across People, Planet, Prosperity and Principles. Because trust grows when words meet evidence. #TrustConference #TC2025 #SILA360 #MediaSustainability #Leadership #ImpactJournalism #WalkTheTalk University of Lancashire Styli C.

Two weeks ago, our new MAS in Sustainable Finance and Development | Geneva Graduate Institute cohort joined the Building Bridges 2025 session. Great to start the year exchanging ideas with such an engaged group of classmates, includig Chukwuebuka Edum, Vanessa Shadoian, Juan Pablo González Ortiz, Sílvia Stuffmann Guarch, Francis Samuel Godwyll, Christian Wimmer and Ines Bächinger, and professionals committed to bridging nature, climate and finance. 🌍💼 #BuildingBridges #SustainableFinance #IHEID

At the Building Bridges summit in Geneva, Marie-Laure Schaufelberger, CFA called for a shift in narrative in sustainable finance, from ideology to evidence-based decisions that create long-term value. Zsolt Kohalmi highlighted how green renovations to real estate can generate a long-term premium, while adapting buildings to climate change poses mounting social challenges across the US and Europe. Credit: Building Bridges 2025 #BuildingBridges25 #SustainableFinance

When it comes to climate resilience - we are only as strong as our weakest link 🔗 which is why its critical to invest in protecting the smallholder farmers who underpin global value chains 🧑🌾 Extreme weather events driven by climate change led to $320 billion in economic losses last years less than half of which were insured, according to Munich Re 🌊 In the meantime, insurance premiums are skyrocketing — and by 2030, the premiums for physical climate risks are projected to rise by 50%, according to research by the Howden and Boston Consulting Group (BCG) 📈 In this new article from Devex by Elissa Miolene (link below) I unpack why this is a problem — not just for those affected by such shocks, but for the global economy as a whole. “We need to start understanding that global resilience is local resilience and vice versa,” said Carter, speaking from the Building Bridges stage. Carter explained how the economies of Switzerland and Italy rely on commodities grown outside their borders, such as cocoa and coffee — crops that are increasingly exposed to a variety of climate-related risks 🌾 “If those farmers can’t manage those risks, they’re not going to keep growing coffee and cocoa,” Carter said. “And that will have a material impact on companies like Nestlé, Lindt & Sprüngli, illycaffè, Lavazza, and the tax revenue that countries like Switzerland and Italy collect.” 🍫 ☕ My colleague Miguel Solana goes on to explain that, "insurance can do more than just protect farmers when things go wrong — it can unlock new investment. If a small agribusiness has coverage against climate-related shocks, for example, farmers can recover more quickly after a drought, keeping operations stable and supply chains intact. That reliability doesn’t just safeguard livelihoods - it makes the business a safer, more appealing bet for private investors who might otherwise hesitate to back a climate-vulnerable sector." Check out the article here - https://lnkd.in/eM2rKVX2 Rowan Douglas CBE Ivo Menzinger Vian Sharif Nik Gowing Francesco Martorana, CFA, CAIA Generali Insurance Development Forum NatureAlpha Swiss Re Alexis Laffittan Sarah Bel Agi Veres Tom Beloe Şebnem Şener Edgar Aguilar Saurabh Sharma Miguel Solana Ceandra Faria Agostino Inguscio David Mueller Aurèle Cotton UNDP Rome Centre Swiss Sustainable Coffee Platform Swiss Platform for Sustainable Cocoa Jaime de Piniés UNDP Sustainable Finance