SDC representatives with UNCDF staff during the signing of the LMF-TF Memorandum of Understanding. © UNCDF 2019.
The Government of Switzerland today became the newest contributor to the United Nations Capital Development Fund's (UNCDF) Last-Mile Finance Trust Fund (LMF-TF) – a multinational trust fund that pools investments to support the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals in the world’s least developed countries (LDCs). Switzerland officially became the fourth contributor to the fund during a signing ceremony between its development agency, the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), and the United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF). The signing took place on the sidelines of the High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development.

Launched in 2016 by UNCDF and the Government of Sweden, the Last Mile Finance Trust Fund is a flexible-funding vehicle that enables contributors to pool resources in order to channel them towards shared strategic priorities impacting LDCs in the “last mile.” The fund was conceived as a vehicle specifically for development funding that is lightly earmarked, or tied to thematic priorities. Contributing partners to the fund can choose to invest among six thematic windows—Green Economy, Food Security, Economic Empowerment of Women and Youth, Infrastructure and Services, Financial Inclusion and Innovation, and Country Expansion. Besides supporting projects to advance the SDGs, LMF-TF funding also creates and tests innovative financing models that can be scaled up for transformative impact, providing real value for governments and populations in LDCs.

Switzerland will utilize the LMF-TF to drive investment in the Blue Peace movement, an initiative launched by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation to support countries to sign political agreements governing shared use of transboundary water and related investments. Blue Peace seeks to encourage private and public capital investment in transboundary water and related projects, while utilizing these investments to enhance transparency and ensure the sustainable production and consumption of water related to all its uses (energy, agriculture, transport, potable water, ecosystem protection etc.). The LMF-TF structure will allow other Member States following the Swiss government’s leadership to collectively invest in Blue Peace projects to help advance the SDGs.

Switzerland intends to contribute $8.6 million into the fund over the next four years.

“We are thrilled to welcome Switzerland to the Last Mile Finance Trust Fund,” said Judith Karl, UNCDF Executive Secretary. “The SDC contribution builds on UNCDF’s decades of experience in municipal finance and fiscal decentralization and helps expand our capacity to support municipalities and transboundary investments in developing countries around the world.”

“SDC is very glad to partner with UNCDF on this historic initiative,” said Pio Wennubst, Vice Director-General of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation. “We approached other entities, but in the end, only UNCDF had the creativity, flexibility, and responsiveness to meet our objectives by creating a new structure to support the aims of Blue Peace.”

Switzerland is the fourth contributor to UNCDF's LMF-TF, joining the Governments of Sweden, Norway, and Andorra. Resources from these three donors through the LMF-TF supported significant achievements in 2018, including supporting the sale of more than 74,000 clean energy products in Cambodia, Nepal, Myanmar, and Uganda; training roughly 990 local government officials and community leaders—313 of them women— in food security and nutrition planning, budgeting, and investment management in Burundi, Niger, and Mozambique; reaching 516,360 clients in the ASEAN region through a challenge fund focused on financial inclusion; and making 25 local investments in Tanzania, Bangladesh, Nepal, and Uganda supporting infrastructure, clean energy, and women’s economic empowerment.

LMF-TF funds also catalyzed financing from key donors. UNCDF work using LMF-TF funds helped raise an additional $15 million from Sweden to support UNCDF’s inclusive digital economy work in Uganda; a three-year/$1.25 million grant to support refugee and host community financial inclusion work in Rwanda; and nearly $850,000 to support financial inclusion work in Tanzania.