Innovative Finance for Sustaining Peace: An Explainer

Abstract

This presentation introduces the concept of innovative finance as a pathway to create sustainable resources to address the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Innovative finance involves adapting existing finance tools as well as creating new tools that can build a fund for sustainable peace. The approach borrows from the successes of public health: that prevention is more affordable and more effective than treatment. Today, there is a staggering investment deficit in the prevention of violent conflict. Spending on responses to violent conflict in 2016 totaled over $30 billion. According to the UN-World Bank, targeting resources toward just four countries at high risk of conflict each year could prevent $34 billion in losses. This project makes the case for why peace through prevention of violent conflict is a valuable investment in the MDGs. This presentation introduces innovative finance tools such as diaspora bonds, innovative taxes, crowd funding, and the use of artificial intelligence through mechanisms like Blockchain technology, showing how these new tools could create a sustainable fund for peace.