Publication:
International Finance Corporation Platforms Approach: Addressing Development Challenges at Scale - An Independent Evaluation (Approach Paper)

Loading...
Thumbnail Image
Files in English
English PDF (1.32 MB)
193 downloads
English Text (97.59 KB)
70 downloads
Date
2023-08-03
ISSN
Published
2023-08-03
Author(s)
Editor(s)
Abstract
Recurring development challenges and new compounding crises affecting client countries and firms constrain the ambition of the International Finance Corporation (IFC) to contribute to attainment of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030. The recurring challenges, including insufficient private sector participation in development financing, continue to affect emerging markets and developing economies and the firms within them. Two related initiatives—the IFC capital increase and the IFC 3.0 strategy—underpin IFC’s goal to contribute to the SDGs by 2030. IFC’s capital increase package was based on the IFC 3.0 strategy, which requires creating new markets through advisory and upstream services and mobilizing private capital from new sources and through new approaches (IFC 2017, 2018, 2020a). IFC has introduced a platforms approach to scale up its interventions in accordance with IFC 3.0 and the capital increase objectives. IFC defines platforms as thematic interventions—at a regional, global, or sectoral level—designed to address a specific development challenge (IFC 2022b). The main purpose of the evaluation is to assess whether the platforms approach offers IFC a means to achieve its capital increase and IFC 3.0 objectives while meeting the Board’s and clients’ expectations.
Link to Data Set
Citation
World Bank. 2023. International Finance Corporation Platforms Approach: Addressing Development Challenges at Scale - An Independent Evaluation (Approach Paper). Independent Evaluation Group (IEG) Approach Paper. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/40147 License: CC BY-NC 3.0 IGO.
Associated URLs
Associated content
Report Series
Other publications in this report series
Journal
Journal Volume
Journal Issue

Related items

Showing items related by metadata.

  • Publication
    Early-Stage Evaluation of International Finance Corporation Platforms Approach
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-03-13) World Bank
    In December 2022, the International Finance Corporation (IFC) redefined platforms as a mechanism for scaling new business development. This is an early-stage evaluation assessing IFC’s platforms approach through the lens of all seven platforms introduced between fiscal years 2017 and 2022. As an early-stage evaluation, the report did not examine the profitability or development impact of the platforms currently underway. Rather, it assessed the extent to which IFC platforms achieved their stated objectives, including (1) Responding to crisis at scale, (2) Engaging with small and new clients, and in new sectors (3) Engaging with clients of the International Development Association (IDA), the World Bank’s fund for the poorest countries, and in fragile and conflict situations. The evaluation also assessed the extent to which IFC’s platforms approach meet expectations on oversight, reporting, and efficiency gains while balancing risks and benefits to enhance trust over time. It also provides insights derived from focus group discussions of early experience to assist IFC in shaping the future use of platforms to address crises, global challenges and to reach new and small clients and markets. The evaluation makes two recommendations on the future use of platforms and on platform reporting and monitoring: (1) Extend the platform approach by building on the benefits revealed in the pilot period and generating new learning on platform performance. (2) To facilitate oversight of and learning from platforms, IFC and the Board agree on the level, content, format, and frequency of reporting on platforms and platform projects, rooted in clear results frameworks.
  • Publication
    Maximizing the Outreach of Microfinance in Nepal : The Case for a Central Technology Platform
    (Washington, DC, 2008-12) World Bank
    This report addresses the establishment of a centralized information and communication technology (ICT) platform for the microfinance sector in Nepal. It has been shown from international experience that ICT improves the efficiency, transparency, and outreach of microfinance institutions (MFIs) and reduces operational costs. There is an opportunity in Nepal to implement similar solutions, and this report provides information on these solutions and offers recommendations for implementing them in Nepal. The microfinance sector in Nepal has many players, but these players have shown few real successes. The sector is largely unsustainable, subsidy driven, and fragmented to the extent that it might not meet the real needs of the country. This report presents a new paradigm for introducing ICT in the microfinance sector of Nepal. The centralized technology platform was chosen as opposed to telecom-led platforms due to its ability to resolve most of the pertinent challenges that Nepal's microfinance sector faces. The paradigm can help remove most of the constraints that have limited the growth of MFIs and kept them from becoming sustainable, moving out to remote and rural areas, and providing more loans to those that need them. In the traditional paradigm, MFIs acquire ICT in an ad hoc fashion and are able to use it only partially to automate their operations.
  • Publication
    Evaluation of the International Finance Corporation's Global Trade Finance Program, 2006-12
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2013-08-27) Independent Evaluation Group
    The International Finance Corporation (IFC) introduced the Global Trade Finance Program (GTFP) in 2005 is to 'support the extension of trade finance to underserved clients globally.' The program has since expanded rapidly, and its authorized exposure ceiling was increased in three stages from $500 million in 2005 to $5 billion in 2012. In FY12, the GTFP accounted for 39 percent of total IFC commitments, 53 percent of its commitments in Sub Saharan Africa, and 48 percent of its commitments in Latin America and the Caribbean. The Independent Evaluation Group (IEG) recommends that IFC (i) continue to strengthen the GTFP's focus in areas where additionally is high and increase the share of the program in high-risk markets and where the supply of trade finance and alternate risk-mitigation instruments are less available; (ii) adopt additional methods of reporting volume that can reflect the distinct nature of trade finance guarantees; (iii) refine the means by which GTFP profitability is monitored and reported; (iv) review the costs and benefits of the current monitoring and evaluation framework; (v) ensure that a transparent process is in place to govern cases of covenant breach; and (vi) enhance the program's ability to meet the demand for coverage of longer-term trade finance tenors.
  • Publication
    International Finance Corporation Additionality in Middle-Income Countries
    (Washington, DC : World Bank, 2022-03-02) Independent Evaluation Group
    Accounting for almost half of global gross domestic product and 70 percent of the world’s population, middle-income countries (MICs) face multiple development challenges limiting achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including poverty and inclusion, climate change, financial access, and economic diversification and market development. The International Finance Corporation’s (IFC) portfolio is focused heavily on MICs. Additionality is the unique support that IFC brings to a private client or client country that is not typically offered by commercial sources of finance (IFC 2019). This evaluation assesses the unique support and value addition (additionality) that the International Finance Corporation (IFC) provides to middle-income countries (MICs). It will cover IFC’s support of MICs through investment and advisory projects, and through its platforms and partnerships. The primary audience is the World Bank Group Board and IFC management and staff, however some findings of the evaluation will be relevant to a broader audience including multilateral and bilateral financing private sector activities, investors, and government officials and practitioners in client countries.
  • Publication
    The International Finance Corporation’s Approach to Engaging Clients for Increased Development Impact
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2017-09-29) Independent Evaluation Group
    Client engagement is essential for the IFC to support the private sector, maximize finance for development, and contribute to achieving the World Bank Group's twin goals. This IEG evaluation assesses how the IFC has implemented its strategic approach to client engagement since the early 2000s, and its effects on IFC's clients and the development impact of its operations.

Users also downloaded

Showing related downloaded files

  • Publication
    The Journey Ahead
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-10-31) Bossavie, Laurent; Garrote Sánchez, Daniel; Makovec, Mattia
    The Journey Ahead: Supporting Successful Migration in Europe and Central Asia provides an in-depth analysis of international migration in Europe and Central Asia (ECA) and the implications for policy making. By identifying challenges and opportunities associated with migration in the region, it aims to inform a more nuanced, evidencebased debate on the costs and benefits of cross-border mobility. Using data-driven insights and new analysis, the report shows that migration has been an engine of prosperity and has helped address some of ECA’s demographic and socioeconomic disparities. Yet, migration’s full economic potential remains untapped. The report identifies multiple barriers keeping migration from achieving its full potential. Crucially, it argues that policies in both origin and destination countries can help maximize the development impacts of migration and effectively manage the economic, social, and political costs. Drawing from a wide range of literature, country experiences, and novel analysis, The Journey Ahead presents actionable policy options to enhance the benefits of migration for destination and origin countries and migrants themselves. Some measures can be taken unilaterally by countries, whereas others require close bilateral or regional coordination. The recommendations are tailored to different types of migration— forced displacement as well as high-skilled and low-skilled economic migration—and from the perspectives of both sending and receiving countries. This report serves as a comprehensive resource for governments, development partners, and other stakeholders throughout Europe and Central Asia, where the richness and diversity of migration experiences provide valuable insights for policy makers in other regions of the world.
  • Publication
    Classroom Assessment to Support Foundational Literacy
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-03-21) Luna-Bazaldua, Diego; Levin, Victoria; Liberman, Julia; Gala, Priyal Mukesh
    This document focuses primarily on how classroom assessment activities can measure students’ literacy skills as they progress along a learning trajectory towards reading fluently and with comprehension by the end of primary school grades. The document addresses considerations regarding the design and implementation of early grade reading classroom assessment, provides examples of assessment activities from a variety of countries and contexts, and discusses the importance of incorporating classroom assessment practices into teacher training and professional development opportunities for teachers. The structure of the document is as follows. The first section presents definitions and addresses basic questions on classroom assessment. Section 2 covers the intersection between assessment and early grade reading by discussing how learning assessment can measure early grade reading skills following the reading learning trajectory. Section 3 compares some of the most common early grade literacy assessment tools with respect to the early grade reading skills and developmental phases. Section 4 of the document addresses teacher training considerations in developing, scoring, and using early grade reading assessment. Additional issues in assessing reading skills in the classroom and using assessment results to improve teaching and learning are reviewed in section 5. Throughout the document, country cases are presented to demonstrate how assessment activities can be implemented in the classroom in different contexts.
  • Publication
    World Development Report 2006
    (Washington, DC, 2005) World Bank
    This year’s Word Development Report (WDR), the twenty-eighth, looks at the role of equity in the development process. It defines equity in terms of two basic principles. The first is equal opportunities: that a person’s chances in life should be determined by his or her talents and efforts, rather than by pre-determined circumstances such as race, gender, social or family background. The second principle is the avoidance of extreme deprivation in outcomes, particularly in health, education and consumption levels. This principle thus includes the objective of poverty reduction. The report’s main message is that, in the long run, the pursuit of equity and the pursuit of economic prosperity are complementary. In addition to detailed chapters exploring these and related issues, the Report contains selected data from the World Development Indicators 2005‹an appendix of economic and social data for over 200 countries. This Report offers practical insights for policymakers, executives, scholars, and all those with an interest in economic development.
  • Publication
    Services Unbound
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-12-09) World Bank
    Services are a new force for innovation, trade, and growth in East Asia and Pacific. The dramatic diffusion of digital technologies and partial policy reforms in services--from finance, communication, and transport to retail, health, and education--is transforming these economies. The result is higher productivity and changing jobs in the services sector, as well as in the manufacturing sectors that use these services. A region that has thrived through openness to trade and investment in manufacturing still maintains innovation-inhibiting barriers to entry and competition in key services sectors. 'Services Unbound: Digital Technologies and Policy Reform in East Asia and Pacific' makes the case for deeper domestic reforms and greater international cooperation to unleash a virtuous cycle of increased economic opportunity and enhanced human capacity that would power development in the region.
  • Publication
    Business Ready 2024
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-10-03) World Bank
    Business Ready (B-READY) is a new World Bank Group corporate flagship report that evaluates the business and investment climate worldwide. It replaces and improves upon the Doing Business project. B-READY provides a comprehensive data set and description of the factors that strengthen the private sector, not only by advancing the interests of individual firms but also by elevating the interests of workers, consumers, potential new enterprises, and the natural environment. This 2024 report introduces a new analytical framework that benchmarks economies based on three pillars: Regulatory Framework, Public Services, and Operational Efficiency. The analysis centers on 10 topics essential for private sector development that correspond to various stages of the life cycle of a firm. The report also offers insights into three cross-cutting themes that are relevant for modern economies: digital adoption, environmental sustainability, and gender. B-READY draws on a robust data collection process that includes specially tailored expert questionnaires and firm-level surveys. The 2024 report, which covers 50 economies, serves as the first in a series that will expand in geographical coverage and refine its methodology over time, supporting reform advocacy, policy guidance, and further analysis and research.