The Investment Climate Advisory Service

Click on the text links or the map for a description of FIAS activities in each region

FIAS Service Focus: Least Developed Countries and Conflict-affected Countries

In concert with the World Bank Group's increasing focus on the world’s least-developed countries and regions, FIAS' main service priority is International Development Association (IDA) countries—recognizing that they have the greatest need for reform and the lowest domestic capacity to create it. This is reflected in FIAS' increasing emphasis on Sub-Saharan Africa and the overall rise in expenditures within the project portfolio for IDA countries and frontier regions of non-IDA countries. FIAS invested over 50 percent of its resources in IDA countries, and close to 40 percent in Africa. As a result, nearly half of total reforms supported by FIAS took place in Africa.

In conflict-affected countries, another important constituency, there is a growing recognition among governments and donors that private sector development is a critical element in economic recovery. Therefore, tested approaches for revitalizing the business-enabling environment are assuming a higher priority on the development agenda in client countries such as Liberia, Sierra Leone, Sudan, and Nepal. Special programs are underway to develop and validate service-delivery approaches tailored to the unique challenges for investment climate reform and investment generation within these economies.

At the same time, strong demand continues for FIAS intervention in middle-income countries which is typically undertaken on a fee-for-service basis. Continued engagement in these countries is important in supporting their legitimate reform efforts, and because the experience gained in middle-income countries can be applied to the reform efforts of lower-income clients. This is particularly true with respect to the establishment of Regulatory Reform Units and Regulatory Impact Analysis (RIA) systems in low-income countries. In addition, FIAS is focusing on additional ways to share knowledge on private sector development and regulatory reform issues between middle-income and low-income countries.