Creating innovative financing for sustainable development
WHO WE ARE
The Innovative Finance Foundation (IFF) is dedicated to financing innovative technologies and results-oriented strategies for development.
Drawing on our global contacts and financial expertise, we build collaborations and structures that deliver new funds and greater impact through innovation.
We help structure project finance, insurance, bonds, debt swaps and other financial products for innovation in education, health, nutrition, energy, environment and humanitarian affairs.
IFF was founded in 2011 by Robert R. Filipp, a pioneer in the field of innovative financing, having invented and structured the Debt2Health program of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, the DowJones Global Fund Index, the Deutsche Bank Global Fund Supporters exchange traded fund, the extractive resources micro-levy to fight malnutrition and many other instruments.
BOARD
ROBERT FILIPP
President of the Board of Trustees
Founder of IFF, Chairman Fluent SA, extensive experience in public service, international organizations and the private sector.
TITUS VAN STIPHOUT
Member of the Board of Trustees and Legal Counsel
Attorney-at-Law, Founding Partner of Van Stiphout Avocats (Nyon, Switzerland) since 2008, specialized in corporate and EU law.
RIFAT ATUN
Member of the Advisory Board
Professor of Global Health Systems, Harvard University, former Chair of Stop TB Partnership, former director at the Global Fund.
CAROL BELLAMY
Member of the Advisory Board
Chair, Global Community and Resilience Fund (GCERF), former Chair, Global Partnership for Education (GPE), former Executive Director of UNICEF.
PHILIPPE DOUSTE-BLAZY
Member of the Advisory Board
United Nations Under Secretary-General in charge of innovative financing for development, former Chair of UNITAID, former Minister of Health and Minister of Foreign Affairs of France.
GEORGES SUDARSKIS
Member of the Advisory Board
Partner Sudarsksis & Associates, former CIO at the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA), pioneer of the fund of funds investment strategy.
LEADING MAN
Dr. Philippe Douste-Blazy, United Nations Under Secretary-General, Special Advisor to the Secretary-General on Innovative Finance for Development explains what’s behind micro-levies:
WHAT WE DO
Our projects are selected based on their potential for game-changing innovation, results, scalability and self-sustainability.
Disaster insurance financing facility
This IFF-designed platform provides risk insurance against natural disasters, initially for the United Nations Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF). Insurance will allow the CERF to receive up to US$150 million in additional funding for humanitarian assistance following a severe natural disaster.
Associated organizations: United Nations, Willis Towers Watson
Waste to wealth conversion
By 2025, the world will be producing more than 10 billion tons of municipal household waste a year. IFF promotes the deployment of an innovative, patented waste management technology that can convert an unprecedented 90% of waste into valuable products: solid fuel residue, pure compost and raw materials. This means less landfills, less green house gas emissions and less polluting incineration.
Associated organizations: CTCN, TERI, 3WAYSTE
Extractive industry micro-levy to fight malnutrition
IFF helped launch a micro-levy on natural resources such as oil, gold, bauxite and uranium, initially in Africa. This new revenue is dedicated to innovations in the fight against chronic malnutrition. Chronic malnutrition leads to an irreversible damage in children, affecting their growth and brain development.
Associated organizations: United Nations, The Rockefeller Foundation, Power of Nutrition
Air ticket levy to fund global health
Launched in 2006, the air ticket solidarity levy was the first micro tax on a global economic activity. The organization UNITAID receives more than US$300 million form the levy every year. Results have been strong: creation of AIDS medicines for infants and price reductions of up to 80% on life-saving treatments. IFF supports the expansion of the air ticket levy beyond the current 12 participating countries.
Associated organizations: United Nations, UNITAID
Girls education bond
In a review of innovative financing options for the Global Fund for Education (GPE), IFF recommended a girls education bond as part of a broader Global Education Investment Bank concept. More than other social infrastructure, education requires massive, very long-term investments blending public and private finance.
Associated organizations: GPE, Open Society Foundations
Technologies to protect endangered species
A large number of innovative technologies, devices and services exist that can help detect illegal trade in endangered species of flora and fauna, thereby better protect endangered species from overexploitation in international trade. Together with CITES, IFF has structured a fund to promote such cutting-edge solutions including optical recognition, sound recognition, laser imagery, DNA analysis and enforcement IT.
Associated organizations: CITES
” The cross-fertilization of expertise is a key element of innovation.
IFF brings together political expertise, public policy expertise
and financial markets expertise.”
John McArthur. Brookings Institution
WHAT'S UP
CONTACT
Innovative Finance Foundation
Rue du Rhône 14
CH - 1204 Geneva