Financing for development is at a global inflection point. The annual financing gap for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) continues to widen against a backdrop of tightening international financial conditions, rising fiscal vulnerability, geopolitical shifts, and intensifying environmental and social risks.

For Latin America and the Caribbean, this gap is estimated at approximately $650 billion annually—a figure that could increase depending on the impacts of the polycrises affecting the region. This scenario demands more ambitious, coordinated, and scaled responses capable of mobilizing public and private resources systematically and sustainably.

Latin America and the Caribbean is the planet's most biodiverse region and possesses vast untapped natural capital wealth, as well as enormous regenerative and human potential. When its Human Development Index is adjusted for planetary pressures, the region ranks 10 positions higher, underscoring the immense value of its ecosystems. The opportunity is clear: with bold investments in resilience, LAC can reduce development risks, unlock innovation, and position itself as a global hub for sustainable growth.

The 4th International Conference on Financing for Development (FfD4), held in Seville from June 30 to July 3, 2025, marked a milestone: the adoption by consensus of the Seville Commitment charts a roadmap for closing the annual SDG financing gap and reaffirms the need to: (i) catalyze large-scale public and private investments, (ii) structurally address the debt crisis and limited fiscal space, and (iii) advance reform of the international financial architecture. This approach has been reaffirmed at the High-Level Regional Forum "Financing Sustainable Development in Latin America and the Caribbean: Implementing the Seville Commitment" organized by the Government of Mexico and reiterated during the 2026 Latin America and the Caribbean International Economic Forum, organized by CAF with support from the government of Panama.

In these spaces, recognition has been given to the strategic importance of regional cooperation and domestic investment as drivers of resilient human development, as well as the urgency of scaling resource mobilization, expanding financial innovation models, strengthening a regional network of specialized capacities, and explicitly, building and projecting a shared regional narrative on financing for development.

Latin America and the Caribbean: Potential to Scale Solutions

The region possesses a significant stock of accumulated capacities in public planning, regulatory frameworks, sustainable financing instruments, and investment management. It also has public policy and social development frameworks that strengthen a vision of growth centered on human development.

Reinforcing these capacities and articulating them strategically can help solidify existing regulations and mitigate financial and implementation risks, thereby positioning stronger project portfolios aligned with the expectations of both public and private investors while leaving no one behind. In this way, the knowledge gap that limits the connection between development and investment, and its alignment with a broad development vision and the ability to generate wellbeing and resilience, is narrowed.

Recognizing that the challenge is not the absence of initiatives but their dispersion and disconnection within a broad and ambitious regional ecosystem, the LAC Facility for Financing for Development (LAC-FF4D) seeks to fill the existing gap in the region by connecting these initiatives with an approach centered on human development strengthened by triple impact: social, environmental, and economic.

What is the LAC Facility?

A regional platform to align investments, foster collaboration, and build resilience

The Facility is part of SPA initiatives and acts as a multi-stakeholder platform focused on strengthening the region's capacity to mobilize investments centered on resilient human development, in alignment with the global Financing for Development agenda.

In this context, the LAC Facility functions as a regional integration mechanism that articulates and leverages existing efforts of countries, development finance institutions (DFIs), the private sector, and technical partners, aligning their respective strengths around a common framework for action.

Its value proposition lies in generating critical mass and systemic effects by integrating diverse initiatives without diluting the ownership and leadership of national and institutional actors. In doing so, the LAC Facility contributes to strengthening the regional financing for development ecosystem and, simultaneously, positioning Latin America and the Caribbean as a region capable of offering concrete, collaborative, and scalable solutions to global financing challenges.

At its core, the LAC Facility is about helping navigate the region's diversity by supporting governments and partners in designing investment portfolios tailored to each country, subregion, or thematic area. Whether focusing on building climate-resilient infrastructure in the Caribbean, strengthening social protection in Central America, or advancing digital public goods in the Southern Cone, the Facility offers an evidence-based regional architecture to identify strategic opportunities, align incentives, and reduce fragmentation.

Operational Pillars of the LAC Facility

A platform anchored in national priorities and designed for systemic impact

The Facility is structured around three complementary pillars, recognizing the existing offerings of its partners to foster analytical, financial, and regional cooperation capacities toward a common goal.

1. Strengthen an Enabling Environment

This pillar contributes to closing the knowledge gap between the financial sector and public policy for human development by identifying high-impact portfolios based on mapping partner offerings and analyzing market demands. It also seeks to strengthen regional capacities to generate bankable projects aligned with national and sectoral development plans.

2. Scale Financial Innovation Models

This pillar facilitates connections among actors for structuring and co-creating financial instruments, including blended finance schemes, guarantees and insurance, thematic bonds and sustainability-linked bonds (SLBs), carbon credits, and other innovative solutions. It also builds capacities and provides a space to support the alignment and mobilization of domestic resources, and the articulation of triple-impact investment portfolios (environmental, social, and economic) with existing capital supply.

3. Deepen Regional Cooperation and Strengthen Coalitions

Articulates global, regional, national, and territorial actors, specialized forums, and technical-political exchange spaces; makes good practices visible; and consolidates strategic coalitions aimed at scaling solutions, capacities, and investments. This work amplifies regional and South-South cooperation, leveraging existing spaces to position an agenda grounded in resilient human development.

These three pillars are deployed in an integrated and coordinated manner, reinforced by an Expert Network for Latin America and the Caribbean, which acts as a cross-cutting asset of the Facility to accelerate capacities, applied knowledge, and strategic alliances in the region.

Governance

Collaborating for Greater Impact

The LAC Facility is a collaborative, living, and evolving platform conceived for co-creation. It is supported by a Secretariat hosted by UNDP, which provides operational support to a Steering Committee composed of cooperation agencies, governments, development banks, and the private sector, united by the Seville Commitment.

As such, it reaffirms its commitment to continue expanding and incorporating new members to advance a joint regional vision for human development.

Let Us Build Together a More Resilient, Inclusive, and Sustainable Future

Working together, we can increase our collective capacity to anticipate risks, promote inclusive development, and ensure that no one is left behind.

We invite all our current and future partners to join, explore new collaboration opportunities, and co-create solutions that strengthen resilience in Latin America and the Caribbean.