Sector Window News Today

I said in an earlier blog that I thought IDA is the world’s most effective source of external finance for overall development in its poorest countries. Perhaps it’s worth setting out the evidence for that in a little more detail.

The World Bank’s Independent Evaluation Group has just issued a “Focused Assessment” of the IDA Private Sector Window, looking at the PSW’s first five years of operation. The PSW, launched in 2018, uses $5.6 billion of World Bank IDA financing to subsidize IFC and MIGA investments in the private sector through mechanisms including local currency financing and first loss guarantees. Six years after launch, it is still hard to do a proper analysis of the Window’s development impact.

The World Bank’s soft lending arm, IDA, will begin its 21st round of replenishment negotiations soon. One thing on the agenda will be the IDA Private Sector Window (PSW), which uses IDA resources to subsidize private sector investments primarily through the World Bank Group’s International Finance Corporation (IFC). Negotiators should take a hard look at the PSW before considering more funding for it, because the window is distorted, opaque, and doesn’t let very much of anything through. 

At the Annual meetings of the World Bank and IMF last year, shareholders asked the World Bank to come up with a set of proposals to evolve a larger role in climate and other global public goods. The Bank’s first response came pretty quick: by mid December, only a couple of months after the request, the institution sent an evolution roadmap to the World Bank board. It is very much worth a read, with much to like but much to panic over, too. Unsurprisingly, given the timeline, a lot more thinkin...

The establishment of additional storage space and the acquisition of processing equipment will facilitate more effective feed production.

ADB and De Heus signed a $15 million loan to boost Cambodia’s agricultural feed sector by expanding DH-TMH’s storage and processing capacity of animal feed production in Kampong Speu province.

A new investment between IFC and CRDB PLC announced today will increase access to finance for micro, small and medium-sized enterprises in Tanzania and Burundi, helping strengthen both countries... | July 13, 2022

05/28/2021 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 05/28/2021 11:19 IFC, Proparco, and Cerba Lancet Africa Partner to Expand Diagnostic Capacity, Support COVID-19 Response in Africa ​ Johannesburg, South Africa, May 28, 2021-To strengthen diagnostic capacity and the health response to COVID-19 in Africa, including in some of the continents poorest and most fragile countries, IFC, Proparco, and Cerba Lancet Africa today announced a partnership to increase patient access to a range of labora...

-- Wants expansion of solar power generation to power telecom industry and improve connectivity in West Africa MIGA, a member of the World Bank Group, has issued guarantees of up to US$25.6 million to Escotel Mauritius covering its investments in solar power generation in Liberia and Sierra Leone for a period of up to ten…