Good Practice

Lessons from IFC's Corporate Governance Experience

June 14, 2011


This SmartLessons publication shares knowledge our staff has developed during more than a decade of designing and implementing corporate governance projects.

Track Record: Lessons from IFC's Corporate Governance Experience is a compendium of our collective knowledge and experience acquired through the years and around the world.

Lessons provide first-hand accounts from staff in the field and reflect the evolution of our project approach with changing world events. SmartLessons is a World Bank Group program which provides a platform for development practitioners to share the lessons learned in development operations.

 

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Table of Contents and Brief History
This section covers a brief history of the IFC’s corporate governance advisory services. The breakup of the Soviet Union led to a bold decision of the IFC to help new governments organize and development market economies. Learn more about how they designed projects that reach a variety of key parties.

Pre-Project Planning and Design
A brief guide for private sector specialists to determine the feasibility of a potential project. This section emphasizes the initial concept stage, how to address a specific market failure that causes private sector obstacles, and how to conduct a corporate governance practices survey:

Project Design

IFC has aimed at project design modules for donor-funded corporate governance advisory services since 1992:

Project Staffing
The staff is critical to the success of corporate governance projects. This section goes beyond the numbers question and looks at the tools on qualifications, cost, scope of work and cultural aspects:

Pricing

The SmartLessons in this section addresses a number of pricing challenges and understanding the balancing act in achieving effective services:

Working with Companies and Banks

As developing countries expand their private sector, more corporate governance projects are emerging in companies and banks. This section taps into IFC’s direct work:

Working with Regulators and Policy Makers
Legislative reform is key to a strong corporate governance framework. The IFC has a wide range of success stories in advising on writing new laws and amendments, conducting comparative analyses and assisting with securities commissions and central banks about the needed regulatory changes on the table: 

Education, Training and Capacity Building

IFC has worked among local consultants such a lawyers, auditors, think tanks, and professors to expand their range of service offerings. Business students also learn to apply IFC’s methodology as they receive hands-on training in the classroom. The Smart Lessons in this area reflect the range of IFC’s experiences in this critical area:

Public Awareness and Media Training

IFC works with journalists to encourage headline-grabbing news to raise public attention on corporate governance issues. IFC does this in part to increase support in reforms, professional training in law and business and to mobilize foreign direct investments as a condition for growth of the economy:

Donor Relations
Donors will always be an important piece of the funding puzzle. Building a positive engagement with donors makes it easier to attract new rounds of funding. This section makes a case for the value of prioritizing corporate governance issues:

Reporting, Monitoring and Evaluation

Exit Strategies
Sometimes the demand for a support network on corporate governance projects goes beyond the time-frame commitment. This section details how to make a business case for a planned exit strategy and IFC’s experiences over the last decade: