LFI is designed to promote sustainable, inclusive and equitable growth in Least Developed Countries (LDCs) by developing local investment opportunities that can deliver transformative impact for financing by the private sector and preferably domestic capital markets. The design phase of the programme confirmed that domestic capital is not used to support small and medium-scale infrastructure development at the rural and sub-national level. Also it is not available for local economic development actors, whether they are local governments or private businesses.