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Asian Development Bank Institute (ADBI) will host Seizing the Moment: Faith-Based Philanthropy and the SDGs in Asia as part of The Rockefeller Foundation's AsiaXchange, convened alongside the World Bank–IMF Annual Meetings to advance a shared vision for Building the Shared Future.

As global development finance faces severe constraints, Asia’s vast faith-based giving traditions offer a powerful, largely untapped potential to bridge rising climate and SDG financing gaps. Amid eroding public budgets and fragmented impact investing, traditional funding channels risk falling short of reaching the most vulnerable or driving systemic change. 

Hosted by ADBI and The Rockefeller Foundation, this session moves beyond theory to activate innovative, non-debt financial tools to broad interfaith networks. 

Building on the operational models for Islamic finance presented at a previous convening, ADBI is now partnering with global leaders to extend these mechanisms across diverse religious traditions. Grounded in shared ethical values, this joint initiative targets high-impact sectors, including renewable energy, green infrastructure, biodiversity, and investment de-risking.  

Bringing together multilateral development banks, faith leaders, policy makers, and philanthropic pioneers, the convening aims to align grass-roots community capital directly with formal national development planning. Ultimately, this session lays the groundwork for a long-term roadmap to scale sustainable finance, building regional momentum that will carry forward to future global policy dialogues ahead of the 2027 UN SDG Summit.

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