Over the last 50 years there have been a variety of successful efforts to scale up development interventions to a national, regional and even global level. Among public sector-driven initiatives, China stands out for its systematic scaling approach (eg the Loess Plateau Watershed Rehabilitation Project)1, as does India with its large-scale rural development and health programmes, and Mexico’s Progresa-Oportunidades conditional cash transfer programme.2 Among private sector-driven scaling successes, the IT revolution is perhaps most notable, including such innovations as the M-Pesa mobile payments system in East Africa3, while among non-governmental organisation-driven initiatives, the Grameen Bank and BRAC in Bangladesh are prime examples. Moreover, there are external donor-driven cases of successful scaling, such as the Green Revolution; the River Blindness Program in West Africa; the Global Fund-led fight against HIV- AIDS, TB and malaria; global vaccination schemes under the auspices of Gavi; and Global Financing Facility-supported health programmes.

In the seven years since the launch of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), we have witnessed a profound trend: the convergence between the worlds of development finance and private finance. Where once these two spheres stood apart – in philosophy, policy and parlance – today there is growing recognition that, even if their core missions fundamentally differ, each needs the other in order to deliver on their strategies and aims.

A central message of the 2020 Review of the United Nation’s Peacebuilding Architecture (PBA) was the need to secure adequate, predictable and sustainable resources for peacebuilding, with the twin resolutions adopted at the conclusion of the review calling for the convening of a high-level General Assembly (GA) meeting on financing for peacebuilding.