A World Out of Sync: When the UN Speaks of Impact and Finance Seeks Meaning
At a time when the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) seem to be drifting further away, a startling paradox strikes both observers and stakeholders: humanitarian and climate needs have never been greater, and impact capital has never been more abundant.
Yet, these two worlds — International Geneva and impact finance — still largely ignore each other.
The White Paper on Agile Finance and Impact, published by the Geneva Foundation for the Future, clearly documents this disconnect: the majority of sustainable investment flows — estimated at over $3 trillion — bypass UN channels.
The causes? A structural illegibility of international projects to the financial world, and a cultural divide between idea bearers and investors.
In the corridors of the Palais des Nations, diplomats and experts share the same observation: multilateralism is running out of steam, while impact finance is booming.
The figures speak volumes: over $1.5 trillion in assets managed by impact funds, yet only a tiny fraction reaches international organizations’ projects.
Between these two worlds, the Geneva Forum is building a bridge — a carefully designed engineering process developed over more than twenty years, enabling cooperation and innovation projects from International Geneva to become legible and fundable.
A Human Economy Laboratory: A Convergence Mechanism Ahead of Its Time
Founded in 2001 by Mr. Thomas EGLI, founder of the NGO Objectif Sciences International (OSI), which holds special consultative status with ECOSOC of the UN, the Geneva Forum has established itself as a true laboratory for transdisciplinary project engineering.
Its mission: to help researchers, NGOs, businesses, public authorities, and international agencies transform ideas into viable projects — capable of both delivering measurable impact and finding their sustainable business model.
From the beginning, Thomas Egli sought to bring together scientists, institutions, and economic actors to collectively learn how to design projects that merge conviction and profitability, innovation and sustainability, science and finance.
An article published in 2003 in the daily La Tribune de Genève already set the tone:
“Between Davos and Porto Alegre, responsible entrepreneurs want to make profits while reinventing a human economy.”
Two decades later, this philosophy remains at the heart of the Forum: to build bridges between worlds that can, together, reinvent the economy of the common good.
The Art of Turning an Idea into Impact
“Every innovation is a conversation,” explains Thomas Egli.
“In the UN system, ideas are abundant, but they often die in the gap between vision and funding. Our role is to build the bridge.”
Led by Objectif Sciences International (OSI), an organization with special consultative status with ECOSOC of the UN, the Geneva Forum enjoys rare institutional legitimacy.
Its founder, Thomas Egli, regularly participates in intergovernmental conferences in New York, Nairobi, and Nice.
This proximity to the UN system has given him an insider’s view of a shared reality: ideas and innovations abound, but scaling up remains blocked by a lack of engineering, governance, and financial clarity.
To address this, the Geneva Forum deploys a three-act methodology:
- Before the Forum: guidance, selection, and coaching of project leaders to make them “impact-ready” (logical framework, business model, impact indicators).
- During the Forum: interactive conferences, collaborative workshops, project pitches, and confidential spaces for meetings between NGOs, companies, donors, and investors.
- Highlight: the Blended Finance Party, where capital meets conviction.
- After the Forum: mentoring, technical support, individualized follow-up, and continental roadshows to bring projects to maturity and connect them to impact finance.
This “before–during–after” model transforms ideas into structured, measurable, and fundable projects — a complete process that enables the journey from vision to reality, making innovation legible and investable.
December 2025: A Crucial Moment for the Revival of International Geneva
It will focus on an ambitious theme:
Making International Geneva and the UN system legible for impact finance.
Over the course of a week, more than a hundred actors from the multilateral system, businesses, NGOs, local governments, and investment funds will gather in Geneva to explore a new engineering of truly cross-sectoral and boundary-breaking projects.
The 2025 Forum aims to prove that it is possible to reconcile social innovation with economic attractiveness, by creating concrete bridges between international cooperation and responsible finance.
The seven annual conferences will serve as factories for fundable projects:
- Impact Finance and Strategic Philanthropy
- Rights of Nature
- Participatory and Citizen Science
- Regenerative Tourism
- Project-Based Education
- Ethical Currencies and Economic Models
- Mediation and Peace
Impact projects will span all sectors, from food sovereignty to next-generation renewable energy, women’s rights, and one-health approaches to public health.
Together, these seven conferences form a coherent journey: learning to design projects that speak the languages of impact, governance, and economic viability.
This December 2025 edition aims to be a catalyst, where International Geneva rediscovers its founding mission: to be the place where cooperation is structured to become fundable, scalable, and measurable.
A Geneva Under Pressure, A Model for Its Revival
Behind the Geneva Forum’s approach lies a sobering reality.
International Geneva — over 40 intergovernmental organizations, 184 diplomatic missions, and several hundred NGOs employing more than 30,000 people in Geneva alone — is being hit hard by falling public contributions and growing competition from other global hubs like Nairobi, Singapore, or Dubai.
The economic and social consequences could be far-reaching:
- Job losses in the international public and semi-public sectors.
- Domino effects on private service providers: banks, hotels, transportation, restaurants, consulting, and innovation.
- Weakened diplomatic image and diminished international role for Switzerland.
- Brain drain and reduced attractiveness for international headquarters and companies.
For the Canton of Geneva and its partners — the FAGI (Foundation for the Adaptation of International Geneva), the Hans Wilsdorf Foundation, the CCIG, and several local banks — the challenge is not merely institutional: it is economic, cultural, and identity-related.
The ecosystem of international organizations, NGOs, and service companies represents nearly two-thirds of the canton’s added value.
A widespread shutdown would have a systemic effect on the region’s prosperity and global standing.
Faced with this silent emergency, the Geneva Forum positions itself not as a simple event, but as a space for collective resilience accessible to all: an operational, accessible, and agile tool capable of restarting International Geneva by offering project models that are legible, fundable, and attractive to impact finance.
Discreet but Tangible Results
The Geneva Forum does not seek the spotlight, but longevity.
Its successes are reflected in projects that quietly emerged after their participation, the result of patient engineering and support:
- Ethical alternative currencies piloted locally as early as 2002,
- Educational programs through research now recognized globally,
- Scientific and participatory tourism initiatives across several continents,
- And citizen science platforms supporting the SDGs or government policies, inspired by the Objectif Sciences International (OSI) model.
“Impact no longer depends on the amount of money,” recalls Thomas Egli, “but on the quality of design. When you help an organization transform, it becomes a model others can replicate.”
This logic of transformation applies at all levels:
the Forum acts both as an accelerator for early-stage projects and a catalyst for internal transitions within international organizations.
“There are two parallel paths: those of the solution providers, and those of existing structures.
Our job is to support the former and transition the latter toward impact.”
It is no longer just about innovating, but about making every project intelligible to impact finance — that is, legible, measurable, and credible to investors.
Investors find what they are looking for: structured, audited, and socially robust proposals.
NGOs learn to adapt their culture to funding requirements without betraying their mission.
And public authorities see a flexible tool to amplify their cooperation policies without increasing public debt.
An Embraced Humility: Letting Results Speak for a New Kind of Multilateralism
The Geneva Forum anticipates a profound shift in the City’s role.
If Geneva has long embodied global diplomacy, it could now become the symbol of cooperative engineering: a place where diplomats, scientists, entrepreneurs, financiers, and citizens learn to co-design viable and measurable solutions.
The goal is not to replace institutions, but to equip them.
By proposing to standardize, simplify, and energize how projects are conceived, monitored, and financed, the Forum restores the legibility and agility of the UN system while offering impact finance a pipeline of credible, measurable, SDG-aligned projects.
Unlike other major international gatherings, the Geneva Forum embraces deliberate discretion.
No grand announcements, little flashy communication — but a steady stream of concrete and lasting achievements.
“Our role is not to be visible, but to be useful,” summarizes Thomas Egli. This assertive yet humble stance likely explains the Forum’s longevity and credibility: it attracts sincere actors, more interested in building than in shining.
From Words to Repair
In 2025, as the FAGI and other actors seek to prevent the fragmentation of International Geneva, the Geneva Forum proposes a model of unity:
a cooperative, participatory, and economically realistic platform capable of bringing together scientists, financiers, diplomats, and citizens around a common language — that of impact measurement.
“Geneva doesn’t need to speak louder,” concludes Thomas Egli, “it needs to be legible. So that those who want to help can finally understand where to act. This is an incredible opportunity to stand out, now that this situation has become global.”
In a century where trust has become the rarest resource, this ambition feels almost revolutionary.
Making the world legible again — this may well be Geneva’s greatest contribution to the planet.
The bet is bold: to make Geneva not the place where the world is discussed, but the place where it is repaired — together.
Read also :
Interview with Mr. Thomas EGLI: Transforming a changemaker idea into an impact project
Interview with Mr. Thomas EGLI: Supporting an Existing Project Towards Impact