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Transforming great challenges into great opportunities (Executive Summary)

Despite the efforts made by public and private agents throughout its recent history, Latin America continues to face significant social and environmental challenges. An example of this is the gap that separates it from the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals. This situation has created ample opportunity for impact investing, an investment strategy whose objective is precisely to contribute to solving these challenges, while seeking a financial return and measuring and managing the impact generated on people and the planet.

With this in mind, IDB Invest, Latimpacto and Esade Center for Social Impact joined forces to conduct a study on the current reality of the impact investment market in Latin America.

The study describes the trends observed throughout the research and the opportunities that this market offers to investors. It also proposes ways to enhance the development of the market, while maintaining rigor around the concept of impact investing.

Given the size and heterogeneity of the region, this study was a worthwhile challenge to help generate a Latin American narrative around impact investing and to boost this market in the region. It is intended to serve as a guide and invitation to those who want to consider this investment strategy and to those who are already successfully following this path.

As part of the study, 27 interviews were conducted with key market players and the existing literature on the subject in the region was thoroughly reviewed.

This executive summary presents the main findings of the research, preceded by a useful reflection on the definition of impact investing and how this investment strategy relates to others, such as sustainable, responsible or ESG (ESG) investing.

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