Publication:
IFC and France, Partners in Private Sector Development

Loading...
Thumbnail Image
Files in English
English PDF (476.11 KB)
46 downloads
English Text (9.46 KB)
28 downloads
Published
2023-09-01
ISSN
Date
2024-03-20
Editor(s)
Abstract
IFC maintains a strategic relationship with France through the French Treasury, Proparco and the Agence Française de Développement (AFD). IFC, with the support of the French Treasury, serves as the Secretariat of the Alliance for Entrepreneurship in Africa (AforE), a partnership that supports a stronger private sector, entrepreneurship and the growth of small and medium-sized businesses across Africa. In December 2023, IFC and Proparco signed two hundred million trade finance risk-sharing agreement under AforE to strengthen food security in several African countries. In May 2020, IFC and Proparco signed a Joint Collaboration Framework Agreement to create markets, mobilize private sector investment, and support economic recovery in developing countries in the wake of the COVID-19 global crisis. The agreement helps build a pipeline of bankable and high-impact projects aimed at attracting investors into developing countries and promote greater reciprocity in project co-financing arrangements.
Link to Data Set
Citation
International Finance Corporation. 2023. IFC and France, Partners in Private Sector Development. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/41232 License: CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 IGO .
Digital Object Identifier
Associated URLs
Associated content
Report Series
Other publications in this report series
Journal
Journal Volume
Journal Issue
Collections

Related items

Showing items related by metadata.

  • Publication
    IFC Jobs Study : Assessing Private Sector Contributions to Job Creation and Poverty Reduction
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2013-01) International Finance Corporation
    This report is the result of an open-source study to assess the direct and indirect effects of private sector activity on job creation. The report examines how and under what conditions the private sector can best contribute to job creation and poverty reduction. The private sector, which provides some 90 percent of jobs in developing countries, must be at the core of any response to this double challenge. Therefore, it is crucial to understand the constraints that private companies face in creating jobs, and the public sector and development finance institutions must help build an environment where these obstacles are removed or minimized. This report aims to help by providing an understanding of how the private sector generates jobs, what constraints limit job creation, and how these problems can be mitigated. The world is thus facing a double jobs challenge: creating a large number of jobs and creating better jobs. The economic crisis has added 27 million new unemployed; leading to a total of 200 million unemployed worldwide in 2011. More than 600 million jobs must be created in the next decade to ensure that unemployment does not increase even further as millions of young people enter the workforce. Private sector job cre-ation is inextricably linked to overall development and poverty reduction, making it crucial to understand how the private sector creates jobs, what obstacles limit job creation, and how those obstacles can be mitigated. This is precisely the supporting role of the public sector: provide the necessary macroeconomic environment and a supportive investment climate. Development finance institutions can support the public sector in that process, in addition to working directly with private companies. Development cannot take place without jobs. Therefore, the world needs to act now to address the enormous jobs challenge that confronts it. The main message for policymakers is that job creation, socioeconomic development, and poverty reduction are not independent, and thus policies aimed at these should be designed and implemented in an integrated manner. In particular, job policies should be a central part of any development policy, and they should tackle the double-sided challenge of generating more jobs and better jobs. The second message is that because the private sector is the main engine of growth and job creation, it is fundamental to understand both what drives job creation and what obstacles prevent the private sector from generating jobs. This report aims to understand the effects of constraints and of policies removing them on job creation, while identifying the circumstances under which these policies are likely to work. The report also contains some estimates of the magnitude of the employment-generation effects.
  • Publication
    IFC and Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Partners in Private Sector Development
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2023-09-01) International Finance Corporation
    IFC maintains a focused relationship with the Baltic countries, which revolves around engagement with select companies in the fintech and tech, forestry, logistics, agribusiness and retail sectors, which are interested in co-investment opportunities in emerging markets. As of June 2023, IFC had a long-term committed investment portfolio of twenty-five million with Estonian partners in the Disruptive Technologies and Funds sector. In February 2023, IFC, the Association of the Latvian Chemical and Pharmaceutical Industry (LAKIFA) and MIGA organized an online workshop on investment opportunities in the health sector. In September 2022, IFC and MIGA held a business development event focused on the Disruptive Technologies and Funds sector with the Lithuanian Innovation Agency and the Ministry of Finance.
  • Publication
    IFC and Finland, Partners in Private Sector Development
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2023-09-01) International Finance Corporation
    IFC and the Government of Finland have a track record of successful collaboration mostly in East Asia and the Pacific as well as Europe, focusing on energy efficiency, climate change, and innovation and technology transfers. In FY19-23, Finland provided cumulative funding of close to two million in support of IFC Advisory Services. In FY18, IFC and Finland expanded their collaboration to launch the Finland-IFC Blended Finance for Climate program. Finland contributed €114 million to the program to spur private sector financing for climate-change solutions, especially in low-income countries. IFC also partners with the Ministry of Employment and the Economy, the Ministry of Finance, as well as Finnfund, Finnvera and Business Finland.
  • Publication
    IFC and Austria, Partners in Private Sector Development
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2023-09-01) International Finance Corporation
    Austria is a strong partner of IFC Advisory Services, especially in Europe and Central Asia (ECA). With the support of the Austrian Ministry of Finance, IFC has implemented successful projects to promote renewable energy generation and distribution, strengthen cleaner production, expand green finance and increase productivity in agribusiness. Austria has also supported programs aimed at improving the investment climate for private sector development. In FY19-23, Austria provided cumulative funding in support of IFC Advisory Services, most recently for the Austria-IFC Europe Climate Finance Program and the ECA Sustainable Upstream Infrastructure Platform.
  • Publication
    Scaling-Up SME Access to Financial Services in the Developing World
    (Washington, DC, 2010-10) International Finance Corporation
    Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) play a major role in economic development, particularly in emerging countries. Access to finance remains a key constraint to SME development in emerging economies. Closing the credit gap for formal SMEs will be less daunting than for informal SMEs. The SME finance gap is the result of a mismatch between the needs of the small firms and the supply of financial services, which typically are easier for larger firms to access. Deficiencies in the enabling environment and residual market failures have motivated government interventions to foster SME access to financing. The stocktaking exercise confirms the rise in various parts of the world of specific business models aimed at providing financial services to SMEs in a cost-effective manner. Effective SME financing models can be implemented in different country and market environments, but greater outreach is achieved in the most developed environments for the financial sector. Although SME banking and microfinance models are successfully being rolled out in an increasing number of countries and regions, equity financing remains a challenge in developing economies. The role of international finance institutions (IFIs) and development finance institutions (DFIs) to foster SME financing in the developing world has been significant so far. Increasing access to finance can only be successful if qualitative aspects are taken into account.

Users also downloaded

Showing related downloaded files

  • Publication
    Jobs in a Changing Climate: Insights from World Bank Group Country Climate and Development Reports Covering 93 Economies
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-11-05) World Bank
    The World Bank Group’s Country Climate and Development Reports (CCDRs) provide a crosscutting look at how countries’ development prospects, and the job opportunities they offer to their people, can be threatened by climate impacts and supported by climate policies. Climate change and policies affect jobs through impacts on productivity, energy and material efficiency, and physical, human, and natural capital. They can also transform employment opportunities, especially through complementary measures that help workers and firms adapt to and benefit from new technologies and production practices. Prepared by the World Bank, the International Finance Corporation (IFC), and the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA), CCDRs integrate country perspectives, climate science and economic modeling, private sector information, and policy analysis to assess how countries can successfully grow and develop their economies and create jobs despite increasing climate risks and while achieving their climate objectives and commitments. Each CCDR starts from the country’s development priorities, opportunities, and challenges, and is developed in close consultation with governments, businesses, and civil society, ensuring the recommendations reflect national priorities. By combining evidence on adaptation, resilience, and emissions pathways, CCDRs highlight where climate action can reinforce development and job creation, and where targeted policies are needed to manage risks and smooth labor market transitions. Taken together, these elements can help create local jobs, ensure economic transitions are just and inclusive, and equip workers and firms to navigate the disruptions and opportunities of a changing climate and changing technologies.
  • Publication
    Gabon Country Climate and Development Report
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-11-01) World Bank
    Gabon has a unique opportunity to drive inclusive growth, reduce poverty, and build a resilient post-oil economy, with climate action accelerating progress toward these goals. The country’s main development challenge is achieving higher growth and poverty reduction, as stronger growth is needed regardless of projected climate shocks to create jobs, raise living standards, and enable a viable post-oil economy. While pursuing growth-promoting economic reforms, climate action that prioritizes people must remain central to its development pathway. However, climate change risks exacerbating poverty and regional inequalities in a country already facing long-term challenges in expanding economic opportunities and basic public services, especially in rural areas. Climate shifts compound these challenges, making stronger private sector-led growth driven by reforms essential for resilience, diversification, job creation, and poverty reduction, though targeted investments in adaptation will still be required to mitigate climate shocks. Using a whole-of-economy approach, the Gabon Country Climate Development Report (CCDR) estimates that climate change impacts could result in GDP losses of 3.5 to 5.3 percent per year through 2050 compared to a business-as-usual baseline trajectory.
  • Publication
    Madagascar Country Climate and Development Report
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-10-25) World Bank Group
    Climate change has made delivering better development in Madagascar ever more urgent. This Country Climate and Development Report (CCDR) finds that Madagascar’s aspiration to evolve into an emerging country by 2040 will be derailed unless it can bolster its resilience to intensifying climate shocks to safeguard its modest development gains and boost economic growth. The high frequency of extreme climate shocks since the 1970s has led to significant macroeconomic disturbances and weak growth. This CCDR examines the implications of future climate change for Madagascar’s growth, and the potential benefits of both structural reforms and adaptation investments. It outlines three priority areas for building resilience to climate change, and calculates the costs needed to achieve this. It provides detailed recommendations for finding the finance required, as well as for implementing the policy challenges identified.
  • Publication
    Kazakhstan Country Climate and Development Report
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2022-11) World Bank Group
    The World Bank Group’s Country Climate and Development Reports (CCDRs) are new core diagnostic reports that integrate climate change and development considerations. The CCDR for Kazakhstan identifies ways that Kazakhstan can achieve its development objectives while fostering the transition to a more green, resilient, and inclusive development pathway. It sets out policy reforms and investments needed to build resilience to climate change impacts and reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions while creating a more diversified, competitive and sustainable economy.
  • Publication
    Kyrgyz Republic Country Climate and Development Report
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-11-03) World Bank Group
    This Country Climate and Development Report (CCDR) on the Kyrgyz Republic aims to support the country’s development goals amid a changing climate. The CCDR considers two policy scenarios up to 2050: the business-as-usual (BAU) and high-growth scenarios. As it quantifies the likely impacts of climate change on the Kyrgyz economy between now and 2050, the report highlights key government actions to best prepare for and adapt to climate impacts (referred to as “with adaptation” measures), with a particular focus on the time horizon up to 2030. The CCDR also outlines a path to net zero emissions by 2050 (referred to as “with mitigation” measures, “decarbonization,” or, simply, “net zero 2050”), highlighting associated development co-benefits.