Overview

The Milken Institute’s New Geo-Economics Initiative (NGI) helps policy, business, and civil society leaders navigate the rapidly evolving global economic landscape. NGI focuses on five priority areas: rewiring globalization, harnessing innovation, catalyzing climate finance, enhancing regional competitiveness, and modernizing the economic framework. Our work is informed by the MI Finance Geo-Economics Advisory Council and leverages the Institute’s private investment, public finance, and local community networks to advance sustainable and equitable market-based solutions to pressing US and global challenges. 

Priority Areas 
 

NGI works to address five overlapping challenges:
 

Rewiring globalization: Geopolitics, technological innovation, and decarbonization are among the forces rewiring globalization across regions and industries by simultaneously fragmenting established economic relationships and fomenting new opportunities for deeper integration. NGI advances solutions to enhance supply chain resilience and modernize the international economic system and its governance to meet contemporary challenges.

Harnessing innovation: Emerging technologies like AI are central to national competitiveness and can address challenges from drug discovery to tailored education. NGI works with technology and policy leaders to ensure innovation responds to sustainable growth, national security, and social imperatives.

Catalyzing climate finance: The race to decarbonize the global economy depends on the success of efforts to unlock and mobilize trillions of dollars to finance climate mitigation and adaptation. NGI builds capacity that can radically accelerate climate investment without exacerbating the burdens facing the countries and populations most vulnerable to the effects of climate change.   

Enhancing regional competitiveness: Growing divisions aggravated by the concentrated costs of globalization and technological innovation underscore the importance of thriving regional economies, which are the foundation of national prosperity and international competitiveness. NGI enhances regional dynamism through bottom-up approaches that connect communities to public and private capital, accelerate infrastructure deployment through unique national-local partnerships, and integrate firms into global supply chains.    

Modernizing the economic framework: The new global landscape requires revising our economic framework to advance sustainable, private investment-fueled growth even as national security, decarbonization, and inequality are prioritized. NGI promotes “smart scoring” and other tools to improve forecasting, risk measurement, and decision-making in the new environment.

Overview

Launched in January 2021, the Public Finance Program (PFIN) aims to accelerate cross-sectoral outcomes through events, trainings, and technical assistance, and advance policy and financial innovation to address key challenges facing the $4 trillion public finance field. Our Advisory Council is composed of executive-level leadership who provide strategic program guidance on key emerging issues.  

Risk Management

We recognize the paramount importance of identifying, assessing, and mitigating financial risks. Our Enterprise Risk Management initiative focuses on equipping practitioners with the tools and strategies necessary to effectively manage uncertainties that can impact public finance decisions and avoid costs. By cultivating a comprehensive understanding of risk dynamics and offering insights into practical risk management approaches, we aim to bolster overall financial resilience and promote stability within the public finance arena.

Upcoming Product Launch: Fall 2023 
 

PFIN Fellows

We are proud to develop events, research and technical assistance products with the help of top-flight MI Finance and Public Finance Fellows: 

Rachel Reilly 
Natalie Cohen
 

Overview

The Milken Institute Public Finance Program aims to close an expected $10 trillion gap in the funding and financing needed by 2050 to ensure that US infrastructure systems are high-performing, resilient, and equitable for all Americans. We do this by helping underserved areas develop the critical community infrastructure projects they need, from broadband to climate-smart buildings, and by accelerating the pipeline of investable infrastructure projects so that private, impact, institutional, pension, philanthropic, and muni bond capital can partner with public funding to promote long-term sustainable growth and economic competitiveness.  

Our Key Initiatives

•    The Community Infrastructure Center
•    10,000 Communities Initiative
•    Regional Rally Ups 
•    Climate-Resilient Infrastructure Initiative 

Community Infrastructure Center

Thousands of underserved and high-need communities in every area of the country often struggle to access the resources they need to build critical community infrastructure and economic development projects, from basic water and energy facilities to climate-smart buildings and housing to the new workforce and entrepreneurial systems that can drive long-term resilience and equitable growth. Launched in September 2022, the Community Infrastructure Center (CIC) serves as a connection point to link communities that have projects with trusted providers who can help with funding and expertise.  

Learn More
•    EDA announcement
•    Predevelopment Accelerator Report
•    Upload your community project
•    Impact briefing: How the Milken Institute is connecting disadvantaged communities with critical project development financing
 

10,000 Communities Initiative

In partnership with other private and public organizations, the Milken Institute launched the 10,000 Communities Initiative to ensure that cross-sectoral attention, federal technical assistance funding, and impact capital are effectively deployed to the underserved communities that need it most. Despite myriad new federal and state funding opportunities, many urban and rural American communities are struggling to access the capital, capacity, and talent required to build critical community infrastructure projects. We invite organizations to help accelerate and advance these projects by signing onto our letter, which will help amplify the importance of direct support to underserved communities seeking access to capital and capacity.

Learn More
•    Read the release
•    Meet the partners
•    Join the Initiative

Regional Rally Ups

The Milken Institute convenes project developers, communities, federal agencies, investors, and philanthropy at regional events across the country to catalyze infrastructure investment. Over the course of several days, the Institute invites experts to participate in panel discussions, project development workshops, and fireside dialogues designed to uncover regional project needs and opportunities, and to support both communities and developers in advancing their projects.

Learn More
•    Midwest Regional Rally up in Cincinnati, Ohio
•    California Strategic Growth Council Catalyst Event in Sacramento, California
•    Southeast Regional Rally up in Atlanta and LaGrange, Georgia
•    Accelerating Clean Energy in Riverside, California
•    National Predevelopment Roundtable in Washington, DC

Climate-Resilient Infrastructure Initiative

MI Finance and MI Philanthropy have joined together to address the $10 trillion gap in funding, financing, and innovation for American infrastructure by 2050. Our Climate-Resilient Infrastructure Initiative aims to have a significant effect on the economy, environment, and communities while building long-term resilience and growth for the United States. We also work to incentivize more effective federal, state, and local outcomes in permitting and procurement, and develop new mid-stage financing mechanisms to facilitate participation of institutional capital in bundled products for project sizes below $200 million. 

The Initiative will deploy all of the proven Milken Institute tools for advancing climate finance outcomes: market-making research, convenings, private strategy sessions, policy dialogues, Financial Innovations Labs, and philanthropic engagement designed to drive outcomes, impact, and deal flow that will build on the momentum of our past initiatives. 

Learn More
•    Capital Deployment: The Four Things We Need To Do This Decade To Get Climate Right
•    The Value of Predevelopment
•    Infrastructure 2050: Where we find the next $10 Trillion