Looking back just a few years, it might have been hard to imagine the expanded role the private sector would play in global development conversations.

Blended finance, impact investing, and innovative financing tools such as development impact bonds have been discussed more than in years past, with more people pushing the idea that blended finance, or blended capital, could be the way of development in the future.

In 2017, the profile of the private sector grew, in part because of leadership changes in places such as the United States, where the election of President Donald Trump and his proposed budget cuts forced people to think beyond donor dollars.

Read the full article on business and development by Adva Saldinger and Anne Paisley at Devex International Development