Since the mid-1990s, the International Finance Corporation (IFC) has designed a number of strategies for supporting micro, small, and medium-size enterprises (MSMEs). The IFC strategy in place since 2001 focuses on: (i) providing financial support to MSMEs through financial intermediaries; and...

Since 2003, Peru has emerged as an open, rapidly growing economy. Over the review period of 2003-09, successive governments adopted policy platforms aimed at maintaining macroeconomic stability, furthering the private sector supply response, broadening participation in growth, improving social...

In the changing global environment of development cooperation, trust funds have emerged as a significant pillar of the global aid architecture, used to address limitations in bilateral aid and fill perceived gaps in the operations of existing multilateral institutions. They currently account for...

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...

Doing Business (DB), the annual World Bank- International Finance Corporation (IFC) benchmarking exercise launched in 2004, is one of the Bank Group's flagship knowledge products. It aims to measure the costs to firms of business regulations in 178 countries and ranks the countries along 10...

This evaluation assesses the impact of International Finance Corporation's (IFC's) Business License Simplification Project in the municipality of Lima, Peru. It reviews two previous evaluations sponsored by IFC and adds new evidence. Under the project, IFC's Foreign Investment Advisory Services...

Technological innovation drives economic progress. Information and communication technologies (ICT) can be leveraged for development, but harnessing this potential depends on an enabling environment for their production, diffusion, and use. Otherwise, technology can widen rather than narrow...

Technological innovation drives economic progress. Information and communication technologies (ICT) can be leveraged for development, but harnessing this potential depends on an enabling environment for their production, diffusion, and use. Otherwise, technology can widen rather than narrow...

This year's annual review of development effectiveness (ARDE) is being written against the backdrop of a global financial crisis, declining growth, and massive fiscal stimulus efforts to revitalize markets. Demand for greater development support from the World Bank has grown, along with concerns...

Over the past year, the response to the global financial crisis has continued to dominate development and the work of international institutions, including the World Bank Group. Challenges of poverty and fragile states, environment, and climate change remain daunting. But the manner in which...