The Agence Française de Développement, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and The World Bank co-hosted a Marketplace on Innovative Financial Solutions for Development in Paris on March 4-5, 2010. A key feature of the event was a grant competition to highlight fresh ideas on how innovative financing mechanisms can be used to better solve development challenges and can be scaled up and replicated broadly. IIEC’s proposal “EcoTRA: EcoHousing Trust and Retention Accounts” was one of the 5 winners. EcoTRA promotes implementing retrofits in existing residential buildings to reduce energy consumption and GHG emissions by creating a Trust and Retention account that will allow banks to lend to Co-operative Housing Societies in the city of Thane, India.
