Mobilizing Private Finance: The case of Wildlife Conservation

The GEF's Independent Evaluation Office (IEO) is tasked with evaluating the results and impact of GEF-funded activities. A central challenge identified is the difficulty in achieving financial sustainability and true scale for conservation projects after the initial grant funding concludes. Innovative finance attempts, such as the widely publicized Rhino Bond, have shown promise but often require a continued influx of grant funding to maintain operations or guarantee investor returns. The IEO is therefore seeking a deeper exploration into the conditions and structures under which wildlife conservation can become genuinely attractive to the private sector. This requires shifting the financial model from one solely reliant on public sector grants to one that generates predictable, long-term returns for private investors, thus demonstrating a viable path for the GEF to exit or strategically repurpose its grant capital.