An Independent Evaluation of the Private Enterprise Partnership Program
 |  | This review, assesses for the first time the performance of IFC Advisory Services Private Enterprise Partnership program in countries of Eastern Europe and Central Asia (PEP-ECA).
IFC Advisory Services provide technical assistance and expertise to governments and private companies to boost the growth of a sustainable private sector in client countries.
Challenging business environments, low levels of foreign direct investment and a newly emerging private sector made Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) countries good candidates for IFC |
Advisory Services in the region, and thus, the PEP-ECA program was established in 2000.
Through March 2007, the cumulative donor and IFC combined commitments for PEP-ECA reached $144 million and 78 advisory services projects were implemented within the framework of this program. |
Main Findings
The evaluation comprised two levels: the individual advisory project level and the Private Enterprise Partnership in Eastern Europe and Central Asia (PEP-ECA) program level. As such, this evaluation conducted independent project evaluations, as well as an analysis of PEP-ECA management structure and support functions, that is, human resource management and monitoring and evaluation (M&E). All together, 44 projects were evaluated, which included 32 PEP-ECA advisory projects initiated from fiscal year (FY) 2001 and completed by the end of December 2005, and a sample of 12 pre-FY 2001 advisory activities in the same region that were ongoing at the time of the creation of PEP-ECA in May 2000.
The main findings of this review are:
- The program was largely successful in achieving its main objectives. Almost two-thirds of projects achieved successful development effectiveness results.
- The program’s management structure, product line specialization, focus on developing replicable projects, reliance on local staff, strong project implementation, emphasis on achieving target outcomes, and long project life helped achieve the set objectives.
- There were certain deficiencies that limited the program’s potential effectiveness, such as the funding mechanisms’ design, weaknesses in front-end needs assessment, and adaptation of product roll-outs to country needs and conditions, as well as some weaknesses in the program’s monitoring and evaluation measurement framework.
See the
full report for further details.
Recommendations
Based on the study findings, IEG recommends that IFC:
- Would benefit from replicating selected features of the PEP-ECA model, as opposed to its full or wholesale trasfer to other regions. Also, some PEP-ECA product lines should be revisited;
- Should leverage Advisory Services and investment tools strategically and systematically in a complementary fashion to adress long-term country development needs;
- Should formalize more detailed and specific pricing and subsidy guidelines for Advisory Services to assess the full cost of intervention and provide subsidies on a selective and justified basis.
To see the full recommendations, please see
Chapter 6 of the report.
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