Lots of $, Not Enough Opportunities

International Development is sexy. No doubt about it. It smells like a campfire, wears Toms shoes, carries a Nalgene, listens to indie music, looks like a celebrity special envoy for the UN, and feels good. And oh, by the way, it will make you rich if you play it right. Perhaps this allure is why there is so much money flowing into emerging markets despite a relative paucity in funding opportunities.

Our panelists - Leslie Barcus of Microfinance Management Institute (MFMI), Chinesom Ejisa of Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC), and Jesse Fripp of Shorebank International (SBI) - have seen the financial side of international development up close and remain enthusiastic about its future. The growth of emerging markets will continue to attract capital, and the innovative spirit within these markets has been awoken. That said, our panelists emphasized the need for new metrics to measure not just the financial success of investments, but also the environmental and societal impacts of development projects. They also remain concerned about the gluts created by foreign aid, which only hampers the impact of private investments in emerging markets.

As for the future, our panelists seemed to think that governments will need to play less and less of a role in encouraging the attraction of capital to international development projects. Hopefully, such a shift would also lessen the bureaucratic hurdles that still hamper much of the efficacy of private investments into these growing economies. The other major shift in development projects is a growth in small/medium enterprise funding (SME) rather than micofinance loans. These loans are larger and look to fill the "missing middle" through more sustainable investments.

Finally, if you're looking to get into international development careers, it is important to brush up on your technical skills - financial analysis, market entry strategy, etc. - while also identifying specific passions for geographies and industries. It's not an easy sector to break into, so be persistent and be innovative.