IFC Advisory Services in the Middle East and North Africa is a multi-donor facility, which supports private sector development across the region. The region comprises 20 countries, from Morocco in the west to Pakistan in the east, and over 500 million people. It covers a diverse set of economies, from countries with ample natural resources to poor and conflict-affected countries and territories, such as Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon, Pakistan, West Bank and Gaza, and Yemen. Despite these differences, most countries face similar challenges, including high unemployment rates, complex legal and regulatory environments, limited access to finance, insufficient infrastructure services, and increasing pressures on existing resources, such as water and energy supplies.
IFC Advisory Services are an integral part of IFC's activities in the region and are funded jointly by IFC and the following donors: Canada, France, the Islamic Development Bank, Japan, Kuwait, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
To the end of June 2008, IFC's advisory initiatives in the region have achieved a number of tangible results:
- By providing advisory assistance to financial institutions and other intermediaries, IFC has helped facilitate about $3.8 billion of investment/financing through the disbursement of over 1.7 million loans to small and medium enterprises and micro entrepreneurs.
- To support improvements in infrastructure and public services in the region, IFC promoted a number of public-private partnership and privatization transactions across the region, resulting in an estimated $1.5 billion of investment in infrastructure projects. These transactions are also expected to generate nearly $1.3 billion in revenue streams for select governments in the region, which will help them reduce fiscal constraints.
- IFC was also successful in helping enhance regulatory reforms in several MENA countries in an effort to improve their business enabling environments. Through IFC’s Alternative Dispute Resolution project in Pakistan alone, about $15 million in SME assets, trapped in outstanding disputes, were released.
| Key Development Results | Total |
| Value of investment/financing facilitated ($ million) | 3,726 |
| Value of infrastructure investment/financing facilitated ($ million) | 1,521 |
| Fiscal impacts ($ million) | 1,290 |
| Value of funds released through alternative dispute resolution ($ million) | 15 |
| Number of all loans disbursed (thousand) | 1,767 |
| Number of recommended laws/regulations/amendments/codes enacted | 28 |
| Number of recommended procedures/policies that were improved/eliminated | 109 |
| Number of individuals trained by project-trained people and/or institutions | 42,521 |
IFC focuses on the following key advisory initiatives:
From its inception through fiscal year 2008, IFC has provided about $57 million in advisory services.
IFC Advisory Services FY05-FY08 Expenditures ($ million) in the Middle East and North Africa
FY05 | FY06 | FY07 | FY08 |
$5.7 | $14.7 | $17.3 | $18.9 |
