Private Sector Development

 

The World Bank’s landmark 2000 report Voices of the Poor gives an unequivocal answer: above all, the poor pin their hopes for escape from poverty on income from employment in their own businesses or on wages earned through employment.  As a result, we consider economic growth a necessary but insufficient precondition for poverty reduction.  Wealth creation in the current economic context demands regulatory and institutional reforms, and often significant shifts in the investment and business climate.

 

Our work in the area of private sector development therefore spans both public and private spheres, and included support for developing a regulatory environment that fosters opportunities for entrepreneurship and job creation while facilitating access to a broad range of financial services—for firms and for households.  Our recent work for the IFC in Bangladesh focused on micro finance institutions provides a suitable example.  We also believe that mobilizing the private sector to offer better services, such as finance and insurance, to the poor as consumers can best be achieved through south-to-south cooperation mechanisms, and through improved public private dialogue.  Moreover, supporting developing countries build robust financial systems that are resilient to shocks is another area where we have supported development policy, fr example with OECD.

 

Illustrative Activities:

 

-  Agriculture and Rural Development;
-  Business Environment Reform and Process Simplification;

-  Financial market development;

-  Investment Climate Surveys;

-  HRV Growth Diagnostics;

-  Trade Volume Studies;

-  Employment Generation program design;

-  Market Development (M4P);
-  Public Private Partnerships;

-  Public-Private Dialogue;

-  Business Development Services;

-  Free Zones; and,

-  One Stop Shops.
 

Illustrative Projects

-  Youth Employment Pledge Development, World Economic Forum;

-  AKT Consortium Value Chain Development in Central Asia with the private sector and three regional governments;

-  Central Bank of Bangladesh / IFC investment framework for more than 500 micro-finance institutions;

-  Development of a Public Private Dialogue framework for regional cooperation in Central Asia;

-  Technical Lead on the Arab Stabilization Plan, focused on private sector development and employment; and,

-  OECD Background Paper on Economic Liberalization and the Private Sector.