The COVID-19 pandemic is not only a global health crisis, but a social and economic crisis that has disproportionately affected Development and Multilateral Finance Institutions.

After July’s historic deal on the European Union’s 2021-2027 budget, attention now shifts to how to spend the €70.8 billion allocated to the Neighbourhood as a Development and International Cooperation Instrument. With the European Development Fund brought into the bloc’s main budget and an array of previous funding instruments now under one roof, there is a brand new architecture to get to know.

The Development and Multilateral Finance sectors in the Mediterranean region are regaining confidence and now have the necessary growing energy, entrepreneurs and activists within them to not just transform themselves, but also help transform the region and the society around them.

Both public and private sectors together can make the Development and Multilateral Finance sector’s goals work on the inside and the outside, for example creating helpful decision-support tools for policymakers, engaging every citizen to challenge those policymakers and forcing far greater progress in the decade ahead.

The Mediterranean and global development challenges are increasingly focusing on the role of the private sector and private finance, particularly following the adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals and the Euro-Med Partnership Agenda on financing for development. This translates into grants, technical assistance and lines of credit for the Mediterranean region. In this context, Development and Multilateral Finance institutions have gradually a higher profile as the industry focuses on how private finance can be leveraged to achieve the SDGs, where DFIs are investing and tracking the trends.

The cooperation of the European Commission and all bilateral and multilateral donors and development banks and funds include highly needed instruments encompassing grants, technical assistance and preferential lines of credit exceeding EUR 22 billion, which are available to Mediterranean SME’s. These facts can be found in the MEDA Finance 2019 Survey, which presents an exhaustive survey of grants, technical assistance and lines of credit offered by several aid institutions working within different economic support programmes for economic development in the Mediterranean region.

This MedaTalk will provide an updated comprehensive overview of donor and financial instruments available to institutions, chambers, business associations and start-ups, and SMEs across the region and will be a discussion platform about mechanisms available for the private sector in the Mediterranean.