Capital at the Edge – Financing Humanitarian Impact

How can we finance humanitarian impact, and how far can private capital reach? We’ll dive into:

- How humanitarian actors can access and deploy new forms of financing

- The role of governments in de-risking and enabling investment

- How investors can engage in complex contexts while achieving both impact and returns.

Taking hands-on experience as our point of departure, we will discuss how innovative financing efforts not only address the financing gap, but can also contribute to increased efficiency, strengthened local leadership and enhanced resilience. The discussion also links to broader national reflections in Norway to adapt the development policy to changing global landscape, including ongoing conversations under project “Vendepunkt”.

Agenda:

11:45-12:00 Arrival

12.00-12.15 Opening words
Marit Fikke, Senior Advisor, Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Sara Lisa Ørstavik, Senior Advisor, Norad
Therese Marie Uppstrøm Pankratov, Special Advisor, Innovation Norway

12.15-12.30 Innovative financing in practice
Lessons on investment-readiness, business models and financing strategies from a humanitarian perspective.

Presented by Ragnhild Nauste, Senior Advisor, Innovation Norway, Linn Tomasdotter, Senior Consultant, TINKR

12:30-13:15 Panel: RewiringAidFinancing – New instruments and ecosystems

What is being pioneered and what is working in financing impact in fragile and last-mile contexts? This panel discusses both the ‘why’ and the ‘how’ of implementing new financial mechanisms within the aid sector.

Panelists:
Eva Mach, Head of Global Environmental Sustainability Unit, IOM

Siddhartha Sinha, Head of Innovative Finance Unit, UNHCR

Kristoffer Grandrup-Marino, Chief of Innovation, UNICEF 

Moderator: Therese Marie Uppstrøm Pankratov, Head of the Humanitarian Innovation Programme, Innovation Norway

13:15-13:30 Waste 4 Value and the road to ROI
What is the role of humanitarian organizations as market builders and contributors, and how can we demonstrate returns?

By Eivind Aalborg, Special Advisor and Siv Øystese, Senior Advisor, Norwegian Church Aid

13.30-13.45: Break

13:45-14.00 Diaspora financing and financial inclusion

Lessons on leveraging diaspora funding, collaborating with commercial partners and iterating a financial model that can scale.

Presented by Abigail Maristela, Program Coordinator of the Diaspora Engagement Unit, IOM

14.00-14.15 Investing in displacement settings
What makes a business serving refugee communities investable? Iganachi Razaki Omia, CEO of Omia Agribusiness and Anne Katrine B. Vedstesen, Investment Director, Nordic Impact Funds. Conversation moderated by Pierre Jallow, Senior Expert at HAUS and Founder and CEO at Remode

14.15-15.00 Panel: Where should private capital go? 
This panel brings together actors deploying capital and building commercial models in some of the world's most fragile and under-financed contexts. Panelists will share what they aim to achieve, what they’ve learned, how they see their role evolving. What modalities are proving effective? Where does private capital genuinely add value — and where does it fall short? How can humanitarian and commercial actors better align their incentives to achieve lasting impact at scale? 

Panelists: 

Ylva Lindberg, EVP Strategy & Communication, Norfund

Morten Schacht Högensen, Head of Program Innovation and Business Engagement at Danish Refugee Council, Board Member of the Refugee Investment Facility

Anne Katrine B. Vedstesen, Investment Director, Nordic Impact Funds 

Moderator: Pierre Jallow, Senior Expert at HAUS and Founder and CEO at Remode

15.00-15.05: Closing words: Emilie Skogvang, Senior Advisor, Innovation Norway

15.05-15.30: Mingling

Join Innovation Norway’s Humanitarian Innovation Programme together with Norad and the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs on 10th June to learn from innovators testing the ground by blending financing streams, humanitarian interventions and commercial returns in fragile contexts.

Venue: Litteraturhuset in Oslo, room: Skram, adress: Wergelandsveien 29, 0167 Oslo, in-person only event without streaming.