LUGANO, Switzerland, 29 May 2026 – During the three-day EDFI Annual Meeting in Lugano which ended today, more than 150 participants from the development finance and policymaking world convened to confront accelerating global uncertainty and their joint future therein.

Shifting away from traditional panel formats, European DFIs joined on Day 2 with their shareholders, along with multilateral development banks, investors, government officials, and global partners in a collaborative Design Forum framework to build new pathways and partnerships that stay.

While crafting a new chapter grounded in core European values, attendees looked to pivot to a new investment paradigm to development finance as the traditional aid model fades. That shift aims to boost geoeconomic resilience, strategic autonomy, and long-term international partnerships.

The all-day forum held on Thursday kicked off with remarks, breakouts, and group discussions, EDFI Association Board Chair Luuk Zonneveld provided context on the state of play of the development finance, while a session on shared values among the development world featured a panel moderated by EDFI Association CEO David Kuijper, Panellists were: Anita Bhatia, Former UN Assistant Secretary- General and former Deputy Executive Director at UN Women; Marta Lucia Ramirez Blanco, former Vice President and former Foreign Minister, Government of Colombia; Swedfund CEO Maria Hammarskjöld Håkansson; Andreas Klasen, director, lill Institute for Public Value and University of Oxford; and SNV Chief Executive Simon O’Connell.

Helene Budliger Artieda, State Secretary, Director of the Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO), provided closing remarks followed by remarks by Samantha Attridge, Senor Fellow, Center for Global Development; Taneli Lahti, Director, Directorate-General for International Partnerships, European Commission; British International Investment CEO Leslie Maasdorp; EIB Global Director General Andrew McDowell; Nadia Nikolova, chief executive officer at responsAbility; and DEG CEO Roland Siller. See Day 2 Design Forum images.

Held under the theme ‘A Call to Action: Scaling Europe’s Development Finance’ and hosted by Swiss development finance institution SIFEM, the Design Forum was driven by tangible momentum as participants engaged in intensive breakout sessions to isolate critical systemic shifts and leverage ecosystem strengths. The forum sought concrete solutions to market fragmentation, prioritising ESG standard harmonisation, private capital mobilisation, and locally led-domestic markets over undue institutional competition.

Leaving Lugano, the community at the event co-wrote a future across four strategic chapters—identity, relationships, operations, and resilience—to accelerate programme delivery, manage risks smartly, and actively transform lives of people on the ground.­

DFIs on Day 1 grounded themselves in their shared mandate and achievements during their statutory Annual General Meeting and deliberative bodies including the EDFI CEO Forum. The Wednesday programme featured a EDFI shareholder programme alongside the EDFI Association meetings, with representatives from government ministries meeting for high-impact sessions on development finance topics. EDFI shareholders and EDFI chief executives held highly engaging joint session that afternoon. The EDFI Management Company Annual General Meeting and Board convened that day as well. See Day 1 photos.

The EDFI Annual General Meeting that morning welcomed Jaakko Kangasniemi from Finnfund and Françoise Lombard from Proparco to the EDFI Board for a three-term, replacing outgoing Norfund CEO Tellef Thorleifsson and FMO CEO Michael Jongeneel. The Association thanked Messrs. Thorleifsson and Jongeneel for their service.

­Day 3 on Friday featured side meetings arranged among members and guests on hand. The EBRD-G7 DFI-EDFI Ukraine Investment Platform was held that morning. View Day 3 images. Before the platform meeting, EDFI leaders met for an informal, one-hour exchange an informal, one hour meeting on the DFI collective presence and action in Bangladesh.

Why the EDFI Annual Meeting matters

The annual meeting reaffirms the European development finance instution mandate and what development finance actually is: not just a mechanism for growth in emerging markets, but one of the few instruments capable of building the kind of mutual resilience which strengthens democracy and free markets in both Europe and the Global South.

Participants concur each year that bilateral, private sector-focussed development finance instutitions such as EDFI help make societies more stable and less exposed to shocks which no country can absorb alone. The once-a-year gathering give a forum to clearly explore again the imporatant mandate development finance holds and look at ways to navigate the future as development finance steps up—and delivers at scale—in a world that has fundamentally changed.

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