It started as an idea in an airport lounge in Cape Town, South Africa, and was launched in Davos two years ago. But on Tuesday, the Business and Sustainable Development Commission did something a bit unusual — it held a dinner at Davos to say goodbye.

Designed to last for just two years, the commission produced a flagship report in 2017 highlighting the $12 trillion business opportunity in the Sustainable Development Goals in several key sectors and set out to try to change the way CEOs think about their responsibility to invest in social and environmental challenges.

The effort was designed to be short term in order to have consistent, high-level participation, a clear timeline for achieving objectives, and not to lose its impact slowly over time. The work of the commission will continue to include spin-off initiatives, such as the Blended Finance Task Force, which is working to mobilize large scale private capital to invest in the SDGs.

The blended finance market has roughly doubled in the last five years to more than $50 billion, and the market could double again in the next 3-4 years. However, one of the big barriers in the past that has held back blended finance — which is the strategic use of public or philanthropic development capital to mobilize commercial finance for SDG-related investments — has been that most deals have been bespoke, and starting from scratch each time is time-consuming and difficult.

There is certainly an opportunity, including for attracting private institutional investors, but multilateral development banks and development finance institutions will also need to step up. Additionally, what’s needed is leadership from those who provide capital, those who can put together blended capital deals and from developing countries.

Read the full article about utilizing blended capital by Adva Saldinger at Devex.