White Paper Humanitarian Investing – Mobilizing Capital to Overcome Fragility

The report argues that traditional humanitarian and development funding is insufficient to meet the needs of 2 billion people living in contexts of fragility, conflict, and violence (FCV). It proposes 'humanitarian investing'—defined as capital that measurably benefits these populations while generating a financial return—as a way to bridge the gap between high investor demand for impact-driven assets and the undersupply of investable projects in fragile regions. The authors suggest using 'market catalysts' (such as DFIs and donors) to identify, structure, and de-risk opportunities, thereby crowding in private capital and freeing up donor funds for the most acute crisis responses. The paper outlines a path forward involving a collaboration platform and sector-specific investment tracks in areas like energy, health, and agriculture.

• Existing humanitarian and development mechanisms are unable to keep pace with the scale of crises, with the proportion of unfunded UN-coordinated appeals increasing from 15% in 2007 to 40% in 2018, representing a $10 billion gap.
• There is a significant mismatch between the high demand for sustainable and impact-driven investing—with sustainable assets under management estimated at $30 trillion—and the lack of investable, high-impact projects in emerging and fragile markets.
• Humanitarian investing is defined as capital that creates a financial return while providing measurable benefits to people in contexts of displacement, fragility, conflict, and violence (FCV).
• The growth of the humanitarian investing market is hindered by several factors: a lack of investable projects meeting investor standards, insufficient use of de-risking capital, low organizational readiness among partners in fragile contexts, and a lack of collaboration between investors and humanitarian actors.
• Market catalysts—including Development Finance Institutions (DFIs), donors, and humanitarian organizations—are essential to identify and structure high-quality opportunities and mitigate risks through guarantees or first-loss agreements to attract private investment.
• The proposed framework aims to use humanitarian investing to close funding gaps for resilience and recovery, which indirectly allows donor capital to be refocused on the highest-risk areas of crisis response and stability.
• The initiative identifies several priority investment tracks to build the market, including water and sanitation, agriculture and food security, health, employment and education, financial inclusion, energy, insurance, and digital and tech.

APA

World Economic Forum (2019). White Paper Humanitarian Investing – Mobilizing Capital to Overcome Fragility. http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Humanitarian_Investing_Initiative.pdf

Chicago

World Economic Forum. White Paper Humanitarian Investing – Mobilizing Capital to Overcome Fragility. 2019. http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Humanitarian_Investing_Initiative.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=World Economic Forum |title=White Paper Humanitarian Investing – Mobilizing Capital to Overcome Fragility |date=September 2019 |url=http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Humanitarian_Investing_Initiative.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{worldeconomicforum2019white, author = {{World Economic Forum}}, title = {{White Paper Humanitarian Investing – Mobilizing Capital to Overcome Fragility}}, institution = {World Economic Forum}, year = {2019}, month = sep, url = {http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Humanitarian_Investing_Initiative.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }