David Bohigian of OPIC discusses the 2X Initiative to empower women globally and how development finance can unlock trillions needed for impact. He argues development institutions must adopt an entrepreneurial mindset to tackle 21st-century challenges while delivering both development outcomes and financial returns.
Chapters
Sure, I'm David Bohigian, the Executive Vice President of the Overseas Private Investment Corporation, which is the U.S. government's development finance institution. Sure. There's 3 things that I spoke about today. One are the initiatives that the U.S. government is undertaking to ensure that development goals and foreign policy goals are met. In particular, I'm excited to continue to talk about the 2X Initiative, which is empowering women around the world and something that OPIC is committed to doing over the next several years. Second, I'm talking about development finance's role in catalyzing capital beyond OPIC itself, truly trying to develop new products and processes that are going to bring the trillions of dollars needed to meet impact goals beyond OPIC and beyond development finance. And third, talking about how development finance institutions and the communities in which they operate need to be more entrepreneurial to meet the 21st century challenges. Well, I'm proud that the Overseas Private Investment Corporation has been impact investing for more than 40 years. And to me, trying to drive development goals and improve lives around the world while seeking returns, which we've done consistently for more than 40 years for the U.S. taxpayer, is the nature of impact investing. Thomas Jefferson, U.S. President, once said, I believe more in the dreams of the future than the history of the past. So what I would like to see the impact community do is be a leading indicator towards some of the challenges that we're going to face in the 21st century, given the technological revolution that's going on. As the world moved from a regional agrarian economy to a national industrial economy, there were major dislocations that took generations to overcome. And as we go from an industrial economy to an information economy that's international in nature, We need to be able to manage those transitions together, and we need to do that as a global community. The Impact Investing Summit is a great opportunity for people to convene from across countries and across different industries to ensure that we're meeting the challenges of the 21st century. Thanks for doing this.
