As artificial intelligence (AI) continues to transform the global capital markets, international financial institutions have the opportunity to leverage it to scale capital into developing economies.
The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development estimates an annual financing gap of around $4.3 trillionrequired to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). One of the main reasons preventing private capital from flowing into developing economies is elevated investment risk—both real and perceived.
A major underlying problem persists that keeps institutional investors from deploying capital at scale into developing economies: the lack of transparent and structured data. This data deficit makes it challenging for institutional investors to accurately assess investment risks in developing markets.
To address this gap, the private sector arm of the World Bank Group, the International Finance Corporation (IFC), created MALENA (Machine Learning Environmental, Social, and Governance Analyst) in 2022, which became publicly accessible in 2024.
As the World Bank’s first “AI as a Service” platform, MALENA aims to transform how the capital markets evaluate ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) in developing economies. By extracting actionable insights from unstructured ESG data, MALENA provides data at scale that can unlock capital for developing economies.
The platform was built on over 15 years of historical data from the IFC, including data on over 200,000 documents across 17,000 company profiles. The AI platform detects sentiments for over 1,000 specific ESG risk terms with 91% accuracy—which is mapped directly to the IFC’s Performance Standards and Corporate Governance Methodology.
This open-access platform can help developing economies attract a wider variety of capital at scale by streamlining ESG analysis for a range of institutions. For asset managers and financial institutions, MALENA speeds up due diligence by quickly scanning sustainability reports to find investments that meet ESG criteria. Banking regulators, capital market authorities, and environment ministries can assess ESG disclosures at scale from regulated entities, enabling faster turnaround times and better oversight.
Why MALENA Matters for the Future of Developing Economies
As international financial institutions move toward AI solutions to scale capital for developing economies, tools like MALENA will become essential. Scaling capital into developing economies requires transformative tools that produce risk management insights for investors. MALENA is positioned to be more than just an ESG analysis tool; it can become a catalyst for sustainable global development.
Other applications for MALENA can also emerge. For example, the World Bank Group could integrate MALENA with its Issuer-Driven Exchange Traded Fund Program (ID ETF Program), which uses the transparency, liquidity, diversification, and lower costs of ETFs to scale capital into developing economies. By enhancing ESG insights for investors in these ETFs, MALENA could give investors greater confidence in investing at scale.
Beyond MALENA, the World Bank could leverage AI more broadly to further advance capital mobilization. This includes investor targeting and syndication. By parsing and profiling the investment mandates of institutional investors globally, AI could help the World Bank dynamically match private capital with specific sovereign and development projects.
As other multilaterals explore AI for capital mobilization, two lessons from MALENA stand out. First, institutions should build domain-specific AI platforms using their own historical data, as off-the-shelf AI models are generally not suited to analyzing fragmented and diverse data from developing markets. The MALENA case demonstrates the value of leveraging historical institutional data to build tailored AI solutions. Second, institutions should provide these platforms as free global public goods to promote market standardization, strengthen investor confidence, and improve ESG risk analysis across asset managers, regulators, and partner institutions.
MALENA demonstrates how a targeted AI platform developed by an international financial institution can serve as a vital financial bridge, unlocking capital at scale for sustainable global development. The IFC has provided a foundation for international financial institutions to have a major role in deploying their own proprietary AI platforms that are tailored for developing economies.
Featured Author:
Dr. Jonathan R. Everhart, CAIA, CPA, Esq. is the CEO & Chief Investment Officer of Global ReEnergy Holdings. He served as an appointed member to the United States Investment Advisory Council for the U.S. Department of Commerce and he is a member of the Bretton Woods Committee.
All views expressed by members are their own and not reflective of the views of the Bretton Woods Committee.