As key players in development – heads of multilateral organizations, their counterparts in government, partners in the business and financial sectors, and many others – convene this week in Lima for the Annual Meetings of the World Bank Group and the International Monetary Fund, an overriding question is how to scale up financing to meet the new Global Goals. The private sector will be a key part of the answer.

The gathering in Peru follows closely on the adoption of the 17 new Sustainable Development Goals at UN headquarters in late September. The New York meetings provided a forum to start implementing the Addis Ababa Action Agenda, signed in Ethiopia this past July by 193 governments. Both events highlighted the range of capital providers who must work together to raise the significant funding needed to achieve the SDGs by 2030. If we are indeed to step up funding from billions to trillions of dollars, the private sector must be at the core of this effort.

By looking at our experience in mobilizing financing for private sector development in emerging markets, we can highlight both what is working and what more we can do to scale up. The aim is to help the global community finance development solutions as well as come together in partnership to implement them speedily and effectively when and where they are needed.

Where are we today? First, it is important to understand how much investment is already mobilized to spur economic growth in emerging markets. One of the largest conduits of financing to developing countries is foreign direct investment, which in 2014 stood at $680 billion in addition to remittances of $430 billion. This together represents more than 8 times the $135 billion given in official development assistance.

A key channel is the mobilization generated by the multilateral development banks (MDBs). Total MDB financing has reached about $127 billion annually (public and private) in grants, concessional and non-concessional loans, risk-sharing instruments, guarantees and equity investments. Over the next three years, the MDBs plan financial support of over $400 billion, which will form the base on which additional funding from private sector sources will be catalysed.

At the International Finance Corporation (IFC), we have witnessed the impact of mobilizing financing alongside our investments. Since its establishment, IFC has mobilized external funding from more than 400 investors – including international commercial banks, local emerging market banks, multilateral and bilateral development banks, funds, insurance companies and other institutional investors – to help fund about 1,200 projects in more than 110 developing countries. Last year, IFC mobilized about US$7 billion from third parties, representing more than 40% of its own $17 billion in investment commitments.

Over the years, we have learned that it is possible to achieve good risk-adjusted returns along with a strong development impact, and this has enabled us to catalyze additional commercial capital for the private businesses we fund in developing countries. Six years ago, we established the IFC Asset Management Company, a third-party fund management platform that now manages over US$8 billion in assets – mostly equity. The AMC is allowing us to marry commercial capital with development needs.

To cite one example, in 2011, IFC and the AMC-managed IFC African, Latin American and Caribbean Fund (ALAC Fund) jointly made a $48 million equity investment in Argentina’s Medanito, a mid-size Argentinean energy company. This investment has supported the company’s growth, helping to secure direct and indirect jobs in the Provinces of Neuquen and Rio Negro, promote the local supply chain and generate what is estimated to be incremental fiscal revenues of more than US$150 million over the next decade.

What needs to change? Our experience convinces us that the private sector will be the most effective partner for scaling up financing from billions to trillions. But the scale of the global challenge means thinking beyond “business as usual” and finding innovative ways to finance essential development. Today at the Lima Annual Meetings, we will bring together private financiers, government officials and MDB counterparts to discuss the mix of resources and innovation required to mobilize financing on a sufficiently large scale.

Just as important as finance is the need to bring together the right partnerships, so that we can leverage scarce official flows as much as possible. This includes working closely with our operating partners, especially domestic ones, who are best placed to deliver better infrastructure, higher growth and more jobs.

The new Global Goals for 2030 are ambitious, but achievable if we stay focused on what is working and where we need to do more. We welcome the growing recognition that one of the critical areas where we need to do more is in mobilizing the private sector – both business and finance, domestic and foreign. It is only with the private sector’s active involvement that billions can become trillions and the Goals can be realized.

Gavin E.R. Wilson joined the IFC Asset Management Company (AMC) in July 2009 as its founding Chief Executive Officer. AMC is a wholly-owned subsidiary of IFC and a member of the World Bank Group. With over $8 billion under management, AMC raises and manages third-party capital for investment in developing countries.