DCED Global Seminar 2026

Bilateral donors are rethinking funding envelopes and mechanisms, including procurement routes and the implications of widespread co-financing. Implementers and multilaterals are scrambling to diversify and experiment with new funding sizes, types and business models. As bilateral donors face budget cuts and focus more on domestic issues, an opportunity arises for others to step in. Will foundations, private investors and DFIs move in to support and sustain systemic approaches? Beyond a common label such as ‘foundation’, there is enormous variation within and among these funders: in culture, funding processes, budgets, time horizons and risk appetite. The implications for project conception, design, procurement and implementation will be specifically addressed in this stream but also integrated into specific technical discussions across the entire agenda.

Bilateral donors face growing political pressures to reconcile domestic interests – such as trade, market and resource access – with (private sector) development objectives abroad. One vehicle for this agenda is private sector engagement (PSE) programmes that involve donor country businesses in development. Ideally, these and other approaches can create a win-win situation for countries connected by a shared value chain, strengthening their respective earning potential, long-term economic relations, and supply of sustainably sourced critical raw materials. But there are also questions that need to be asked: What does it take to deliver shared benefits for both donor and developing countries through PSE and PSD? And how can domestic benefits be captured and communicated effectively without losing sight of the ‘development’ objectives of PSD? Sessions will explore policy shifts and practical examples of how to achieve synergies and navigate tensions, through concrete steps taken at both HQ and programme levels.

There is a need to create systems through which finance can reach SMEs, and in which SMEs can develop to attract finance. The 2024 Global Seminar demonstrated that access to finance for dynamic SMEs in emerging markets requires collaboration between PSD and finance specialists. Building on the ongoing work of the new DCED Finance Working Group to develop a shared language and vision for SME finance, the 2026 Seminar will focus on practice: concrete examples, institutional configurations and the results and learning that are emerging.

As a flagship systemic approach in PSD, MSD remains a key choice for donors and implementers alike. Significant updates to core guidance are in progress, and these should be examined and debated by the community. The Seminar will also mark 25 years since the publication of the Guiding Principles for Business Development Services (the ‘Blue Book’). What lessons have been learnt since its release, and how has the operating environment for MSD evolved? Is funding for neutral market facilitators being squeezed out? How are team leaders adjusting to increasing pressures for results, inclusion, climate impact, and achieving multiple objectives? And do new funders offer opportunities or risks to sticking to core MSD principles?

In the past two years, a Just Transition has become a central topic on the agendas of many funding agencies. Yet, examples beyond climate adaptation in agriculture remain sparse. What are the limits of tweaking existing portfolios, projects and interventions? In a time of shifting funding priorities, how will new projects be conceptualised and designed differently? Trade-offs between environmental and socioeconomic (employment) outcomes need to be openly discussed between funders and implementers to enable a strategic vision of who is at risk and who might gain. Crucially, this also requires engagement with businesses at the forefront of market intelligence on climate risks and supply chain shifts.  By injecting new voices, including those from foundations whose core strategy rests on a Just Transition, and harvesting best-in-class insights from the frontiers of green PSD practice and measurement, Seminar sessions will explore the contours of a new generation of green PSD programming.

Against the backdrop of a humanitarian funding collapse, more people than ever before are faced with protracted crises and displacement. Populations that have depended on prolonged humanitarian assistance are coping with dwindling food assistance and other support for their basic needs. In recent years, there has also been growing interest in the use of market systems approaches in fragile contexts and displacement settings, as well as efforts to sustain critical markets through shocks. What has the sector learnt about the potential to support vulnerable populations through more sustainable and stronger local markets? How are people currently coping and adapting in displacement settings and in fragile contexts? How are organisations adapting to the new normal in ways that deliver both value for money and meaningful impacts? And what roles do new funders and private sector partners play in supporting resilient market systems in such contexts going forward? This stream will challenge norms and explore critical questions for improving how we work in the world’s most challenging places.

Communicating credible evidence on effective PSD remains important to mobilise conventional and new funders. But while aid budgets are shrinking, the goalposts of results measurement in PSD keep shifting to capture diverse outcomes: green ambitions, trade effectiveness, systemic change, gender, youth and vulnerable groups inclusion. There is also a growing demand for credible self-reported data from market stakeholders such as SMEs to reduce monitoring costs and empower local actors to communicate their development relevance and attract impact finance. Sessions will show the latest PSD evidence and discuss emerging good practices in trying to tackle the different measurement aspects in credible, yet practical and cost-effective ways.

Inclusion can be mainstreamed within systemic development programming, supported by years of evidence showing that programmes and private investments are more successful and sustainable when designed through an inclusion lens. Yet, in some circles, the entire premise is being challenged. Creating space for and valuing inclusion requires courageous and continuous leadership at multiple levels as the PSD landscape shifts towards new topics and ways of operating. Sessions will unpack what this looks like in practice. This will include experiences in championing inclusion through intersectional approaches (e.g. to WEE, climate and care); as well as steps taken at policy and HR levels to ‘hold the line’ in this vital domain at a time when it most needs protection.