GC2025 Insights: How Policies & Incentives Build Impact Economies

Why It Matters

By aligning policy, incentives, and transparent standards, GSG Impact unlocks domestic capital, scaling impact investing and accelerating Sustainable Development Goal financing worldwide.

Key Takeaways

• Policy advocacy unlocks billions in domestic impact capital across emerging markets
• Strong local partners enable tailored incentives for impact investing
• Blended finance structures attract skeptical institutional investors to impact deals
• Transparency standards ensure measurable outcomes and legitimacy in impact funds
• GSG Impact’s global‑local network expands impact economies in 48 countries

Summary

The podcast spotlights GSG Impact’s mission to build impact economies by shaping policies and incentives that channel capital toward measurable social and environmental outcomes. Elizabeth, a veteran of the Inter‑American Development Bank and UN, explains how the organization’s 43 national partners across 48 countries create local frameworks that attract domestic investors.

Key insights include the power of a single policy win to unlock billions of dollars, the untapped potential of Asian pension funds, sovereign wealth, and family offices, and the central role of blended finance in offering varied return profiles to skeptical institutional investors. GSG emphasizes rigorous impact standards and disclosure to ensure legitimacy and measurable results.

Elizabeth notes, “Assets under management for impact are tiny today; I hope they grow a hundredfold in ten years,” and adds, “Blended finance is our ticket to unlock more impact investing.” She cites the Dutch pension system’s $70 billion impact allocation as a model for other markets.

The implications are clear: investors seeking scale must engage with policy makers, adopt transparent standards, and leverage blended structures. For emerging markets, aligning domestic capital with impact goals could transform financing landscapes and accelerate progress toward the Sustainable Development Goals.

Original Description

In the following episodes, we bring you insights from this year’s AVPN Global Conference (“GC2025”), held September 9-11 in Hong Kong. There will be episodes highlighting thought leadership from prominent speakers. This includes snippets from speeches and special features of our speakers on Impact Investing Day (September 10).

In this episode, we feature Elizabeth Boggs Davidsen, CEO of GSG Impact, a global network of national partners advancing the infrastructure, incentives, and policy frameworks needed to build impact economies. With 43 national partners across 48 countries and more than half located in emerging markets, GSG Impact is helping countries embed impact into policy, business practice, and investment decision-making.

Elizabeth’s past experience in development finance spans the Inter-American Development Bank, where she led impact investing portfolios, in the United Nations Development Programme, leading the SDG Impact initiative, and the US International Development Finance Corporation, leading policy. She joined GSG Impact as CEO in 2024, bringing deep expertise in blended finance and creating policy frameworks to unlock institutional capital for impact investments.

From her sharing, she emphasises how key policy wins can unlock vast amounts of impact capital.

Elizabeth reflects on:

• How can policy and regulatory reforms unlock domestic capital - including pensions, insurers, and sovereign wealth - for impact?

• What incentive structures, disclosure standards, and enabling conditions are needed to direct more of Asia’s domestic assets toward impact?

• How can strong local leadership, backed by global-to-local learning, help countries build stronger impact economies and more effective national impact investing organisations?