Unlocking Futures: How the IDA Private Sector Window Is Creating Jobs Where They Are Needed Most

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

  • By leveraging IFC and MIGA business platforms, the IDA PSW creates an opportunity for the strategic use of public resources to catalyze private investment, making it possible for companies and industries to operate in high-risk, fragile, and conflict-affected settings.
  • A total of $5.4 billion from the IDA PSW has catalyzed over $31 billion in commercial investments in low-income and fragile countries and is expected to create 3 million jobs, provide 4 million additional loans to micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs), and expand digital connectivity to 31 million subscribers.
  • From agribusiness in Mozambique to telecom infrastructure in West Africa and clean water access in Haiti, IDA PSW-supported investments are building the ecosystems needed to sustain jobs, boost resilience, and spark inclusive economic growth.
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Harnessing the private sector for better development data

Data is at the heart of development, powering the decisions and investments that help to reduce poverty and build a sustainable future. Yet most national statistical systems in low- and middle-income countries are under-resourced and ill-equipped to provide the timely, granular, and policy-relevant data needed for sound decision-making. Traditional surveys, which are often cross-sectional, infrequent, and costly, struggle to keep up with the blistering pace of economic and social change.

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Consultations on the World Bank’s New Country Engagement Approach

As part of its Evolution Process, the World Bank Group is reviewing its country engagement approach to align it with its new vision and mission while becoming more efficient, outcome-focused, and more systematic in tapping into private sector solutions wherever possible. 

To inform the new country engagement approach, we will hold formal consultations with external stakeholders. Online consultations opened on January 16, 2025, and consultation meetings will be held in all seven operational regions of the WBG starting February. The consultations will close on March 21, 2025. The meetings will follow a hybrid format, combining in-person and virtual participation. Rethinking the Approach to WBG Country Engagement will provide the basis for consultations. To see the consultations outreach plan, click here.

Note: The approach paper is now available in ArabicChineseFrenchPortugueseRussian, and Spanish.

ONLINE CONSULTATIONS

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IDB Completes Credit-Risk Insurance Deal with Private Sector to Enhance Lending Capacity

The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) completed its second risk-transfer transaction with private insurance companies, leveraging credit insurance protection to diversify its portfolio and unlock capital for additional lending. 

This transaction provides $300 million in credit insurance coverage across two sovereign exposures on the IDB’s balance sheet. By releasing capital with a lending multiplier of up to four times, the deal expands the Bank’s ability to increase development financing, supporting critical projects and improving lives in Latin America and the Caribbean. The coverage is distributed among seven insurance companies in the United States and Europe, including four new counterparties participating in this initiative.  

As a pioneer in credit-substitution transactions and guarantees, the IDB continues to lead innovative collaborations with Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs), governments, and the private sector. This effort reinforces the IDB’s strategy to maximize lending capacity and aligns with the recommendations of the G20-sponsored MDB Capital Adequacy Framework Review. 

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USAID Launches New Window of $50 Million for EDGE Fund to Boost Innovation through Private Sector Partnerships

Press Release

USAID announced a new $50 million round of funding for the USAID’s EDGE Fund. The EDGE Fund enables USAID Missions worldwide to leverage private sector expertise, networks and supply chains to drive sustainable and scalable solutions to global challenges.  

Recognizing that the needs faced by communities around the globe are simply too large for governments and donors to tackle alone, USAID engages a wide range of partners in its work, most notably the private sector. The EDGE Fund supports the most catalytic types of private sector partnerships in which there is significant alignment between the commercial interests of our private sector partners, the development objectives of the Agency, and development needs of local populations, ensuring continued private sector investment into targeted communities well into the future.

Through prior rounds of EDGE funding, USAID is investing $100 million and is leveraging over $280 million from the private sector to implement solutions that could unlock upwards of $2 billion in mobilized investments for sustainable development. Through collaborations with over 80 private sector partners, the EDGE Fund is advancing market-led solutions that address conflict, displacement, and food insecurity; accelerate inclusive economic growth; tackle the climate crisis; and combat political repression and corruption.   

This new $50 million third round of funding, brings total USAID investment through the EDGE Fund to $150 million.

Prospective partners can submit Expressions of Interest on the EDGE Fund page.

 

 
 
 

 

Law, Justice and Development Week 2023—Partnering for Impact: Enabling and Mobilizing the Private Sector for Sustainable Development

 

The Law, Justice and Development (LJD) Week is an annual conference organized by780X439Web-page-V5-01 the Legal Vice Presidency of the World Bank in collaboration with partners within and outside the World Bank Group (WBG). It convenes participants from across the globe to meet and share knowledge, as well as to network and strengthen relationships for collaboration and collective action in the sphere of law, justice and development. The mission of WBG is to end extreme poverty and boost shared prosperity on a livable planet. To achieve sustainable, durable and inclusive development, WBG works in partnership with other development finance institutions (DFIs), international organizations, the public and private sectors, academia and civil society.

The theme of this year’s conference is Partnering for Impact: Enabling and Mobilizing the Private Sector for Sustainable Development. DFIs have an indispensable role to play in addressing global polycrises that undermine many of the development gains made to date and threaten most of the urgent priorities going forward. The scale of these challenges is beyond the capacity of the public sector alone and requires both private finance for private sector investments and private finance for public sector spending. LJD Week 2023 will examine how the various development partners can optimize their collaboration with particular emphasis on enabling and mobilizing the private sector. Please join us in person at the WBG Headquarters in Washington, DC or online on November 13-15, 2023.

 
 

 

World Bank Names 15 Leading CEOs and Chairs to Join the Private Sector Investment Lab

LONDON, July 10 2023 – The World Bank today announced the 15 Chief Executive Officers and Chairs who will make up the Private Sector Investment Lab. The founding members comprise a core group charged with developing solutions to address the barriers to private sector investment in emerging markets. The quality of their individual – and combined – expertise, leadership, and success in business and finance underscores the growing momentum, and level of commitment, for public and private collaboration to address global challenges and urgently scale development solutions.  

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World Bank Group Intensifies Focus on Private Sector, Launches Effort to Scale Investment in Emerging Markets

PARIS, June 22, 2023—The World Bank Group today launched the Private Sector Investment Lab, a concrete step in a broader effort to develop, and rapidly scale, solutions that address the barriers preventing private sector investment in emerging markets.

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Malpass Announces Strengthened Effort to Support Private Sectors and Increase Private Capital for Development and Climate

WASHINGTON, March 23, 2023—World Bank Group President David Malpass today announced a new approach to strengthen private sectors and the delivery of Private Capital Facilitation in World Bank Group operations and knowledge work aimed at increasing growth and the resources available for development and climate costs.

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