This report presents the key elements from the morning session of Monday, December 8, 2025, organized by the Geneva Forum at the Palais des Nations (Room XII), as part of the annual conference “Impact Finance, Investment, Philanthropy and Blended Finance for Peace and Development,” co-endorsed by the Permanent Mission of Switzerland to the United Nations in Geneva.
This day was part of the effort to sustainably bridge two of Geneva’s longstanding pillars, which have coexisted for decades, yet whose logics remain difficult to align in daily practice.
- On the one hand, International Geneva and the multilateral ecosystem (intergovernmental organizations, permanent missions, NGOs, foundations, and associations), currently weakened by the rapid evolution of traditional funding streams;
- On the other hand, Geneva’s financial center, with its strong expertise, significant assets under management, and growing momentum in so-called impact finance.
The challenge is simultaneously economic, institutional, and strategic: to preserve and strengthen a vital ecosystem for the region, while developing financing models that are compatible with the imperatives of peace, accountability, and performance in service of the common good.
This “Impact Finance” morning session was thus conceived as a moment of alignment: to share a clear-eyed diagnosis, clarify opportunities, identify tangible levers (investment, philanthropy, blended finance), and lay the groundwork for more understandable, fundable, and replicable transdisciplinary impact projects, capable of supporting the UN system, NGOs, local authorities, and economic actors.
This report therefore pursues a simple goal: to preserve a faithful record of the key messages, points of convergence, and operational pathways that emerged, in order to inform the remainder of the bootcamp and help build future collaborations at the intersection of finance, sustainable development, and multilateralism.
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List of Speakers and Their Organizations
Thomas EGLI (Geneva Forum) recalled the mission of the Geneva Forum since 2001 – linking finance and cooperation, turning silos into bridges – and presented the in-depth work carried out by the finance-science-entrepreneurship collective he has coordinated since 2022, in the context of the creation of the Geneva Foundation for the Future and the AGILE tool for the Impact Finance;
Vincent CONUS (Permanent Mission of Switzerland to the UN in Geneva) announced a funding commitment of 250 million Swiss francs to support Geneva as a multilateral capital through tools such as the SDG Impact Finance Initiative and Building Bridges;
Béatrice FERRARI (International Affairs Directorate, Canton of Geneva) highlighted the agility of local institutions as drivers of innovation;
Vincent SUBILIA (Geneva Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Services) affirmed the compatibility of sustainability and profitability, cit
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