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May 22, 2019

Papua New Guinea: New World Bank Group Strategy Focuses on Delivering Economic Growth, Improved Services for Most Marginalized People

Helping to manage risks to Papua New Guinea’s economic growth and ensuring more services for people currently missing out are key elements of the World Bank Group’s new 2019-2023 Country Partnership Framework (CPF) for Papua New Guinea, now endorsed by the Board of Executive Directors. The new five year strategy lays out the challenges and opportunities as well as three main focus areas for work by the World Bank Group’s member organizations, including the World Bank, the International Finance Corporation (IFC) which focuses on the private sector in developing countries; and the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA), which offers political risk insurance and credit enhancement guarantees. Encouraging more private sector growth is a fundamental focus area to help Papua New Guinea meet its development challenges, create jobs and diversify the economy.

May 20, 2019

Creating Markets in Ethiopia: Country Private Sector Diagnostic

This Country Private Sector Diagnostic (CPSD) examines and identifies opportunities for growth of the private sector in Ethiopia. It suggests a broadening strategy to exploit opportunities in a range of traditional and non-traditional sectors, such as tourism and ICT to meet the jobs challenge, while achieving macroeconomic stability.

English | 87 pages | 2019 IFC

May 20, 2019

Greening Construction: The Role of Carbon Pricing

This study explores how carbon pricing mechanisms can be designed better to more effectively account for emis¬sions from the construction value chain. It identifies raw material production and use as the stages with highest emissions, and outlines the need for intervention at the earliest stages of the project to reduce emissions along the lifecycle. The analysis also finds that the method of project delivery and financing can impact the emissions profile of a constructed asset.

May 17, 2019

Fact Sheet: Disclosure and Transparency Standards in Emerging Markets, May 2019

Th program plays a vital role in building investor confidence and unlocking private sector investments in emerging markets. Responding to the growing demand for higher standards of corporate disclosure and transparency, it provides practical tools and advisory services for companies, stock exchanges and regulators in emerging markets to bring about integrated corporate reporting that includes environmental, social and governance matters.

May 14, 2019

Creating Markets in Angola: Country Private Sector Diagnostic

This Country Private Sector Diagnostic (CPSD) identifies opportunities to stimulate sustainable economic growth and development by harnessing the power of the private sector in Angola.

English | 164 pages | 2019 IFC

May 13, 2019

bKash’s Success Establishes Mobile Financial Services in Bangladesh

In five years, growth of mobile financial services in Bangladesh has skyrocketed, with IFC client bKash leading the way.

English | 2 pages | 2019 IFC

May 11, 2019

Private Sector & Refugees—Pathways to Scale

A new IFC study—Private Sector & Refugees: Pathways to Scale—produced in partnership with The Bridgespan Group, takes an unprecedented look at over 170 initiatives in both Africa and the Middle East to understand the nature of, and derive lessons from, private sector engagement with refugees and host communities.

English | 80 pages | 2019 IFC

May 7, 2019

Setting Sail Towards Zero Emissions in Shipping

The need for new technologies to make fleets more sustainable, and compliant with changing industry standards, is creating investment opportunities in green shipping. This research note explains how IFC helped the Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC) improve operational efficiency and manage water treatment systems amid shipping industry change.

English | 3 pages | 2019 IFC

May 3, 2019

Governance for SME Sustainability and Growth

Private Sector Opinion 43: This paper introduces the IFC Governance Methodology for small and medium enterprises, a governance model designed to support the organic growth of small and mid-size businesses by offering solutions that are fit for purpose through each stage of their evolution.

May 1, 2019

Developing alternative delivery channels in the Democratic Republic of Congo (FINCA DRC Case Study)

FINCA DRC has been bringing financial services to the unbanked in a difficult environment.

English | 2 pages | 2019 IFC

Apr 26, 2019

Introducing Mobile Banking to Papua New Guinea (Bank South Pacific Case Study)

Papua New Guinea’s biggest bank, Bank South Pacific, reached new customers and SMEs in rural areas through digital financial services.

English | 2 pages | 2019 IFC

Apr 25, 2019

Women & Insurance: The Next Frontier

In emerging economies, the women’s market for insurance could grow to between $570 and $890 billion by 2030.

English | 2019 IFC

Apr 22, 2019

Developing mobile banking technologies in Indonesia (Bank Sinar Case Study)

Building an effective mobile wallet product requires constant innovation.

English | 2 pages | 2019 IFC

Apr 22, 2019

Strengthening Women Farmers in DCM Shiram's Sugarcane Value Chain

The agriculture sector employs nearly 98 million women in India. Yet, their contribution remains undervalued—especially in sectors such as sugarcane farming, which are perceived to be male-dominated. This case study explores how DCM Shriram Ltd. and IFC developed specific solutions to increase the visibility of the work done by women farmers and their impact on improving farm yields.

English | 4 pages | 2019

Apr 18, 2019

Longitudinal Study: Results from Four Years of a New Banking Model for Africa

From 2014 to 2018, IFC and the Mastercard Foundation conducted a longitudinal study with nine partner financial institutions (FIs) in seven Sub-Saharan African countries to understand best practices to scale Digital Financial Services (DFS) and expand financial inclusion. The study extracts lessons on DFS strategy and implementation, business models and how institutional culture and change management influence organizations undertaking a DFS journey. By analyzing the experiences of these FIs over time, the study yields valuable lessons and benchmarks for the industry and helps to differentiate salient DFS issues faced by FIs versus MNOs.

English | 47 pages | 2019 IFC

Apr 17, 2019

Financiar a las emprendedoras es buen negocio

El nuevo estudio de mercado de IFC sobre la Banca Mujer en Argentina revela que las emprendedoras son un segmento por atender por los bancos del país e identifica oportunidades de negocio para beneficio de las mujeres, las Pymes, los bancos y la sociedad en general.

Español | 24 páginas | 2019 IFC

Apr 16, 2019

Poverty Estimation with Satellite Imagery at Neighborhood Levels

Applying machine vision models to satellite images provide a tantalizing opportunity to “see” from space features and geographical areas that correspond to higher and lower levels of welfare and poverty. To date, encouraging results have been identified using night-time light emissions, as increased levels of urbanization, electrification and infrastructure correlate with wealthier geographic segments. But these approaches cover city-wide areas or bigger and do not yield the granular information that policy makers and service providers need to understand localized markets, customer demographics and how interventions impact individual beneficiaries.

English | 29 pages | 2019 IFC

Apr 15, 2019

Small Businesses and Digital Financial Services – Predictive Modelling and Segmentation for Market Sizing and Product Design

Micro, Small, and Medium-Sized Enterprises are the backbone of vibrant and dynamic economies. But they are sometimes hard for financial institutions to identify because of the methods they use to conduct their transactions. This report discusses predictive data models to help a mobile network operator, identify MSMEs in its market and better understand how to serve them. Identification and segmentation of businesses that use mobile money services provides valuable information for product design and targeted marketing.

English | 27 pages | 2019 IFC

Apr 11, 2019

Bancamía Expands Micro Credit in Colombia

With support from IFC investment and advisory services, Bancamía S.A., Colombia’s biggest microfinance institution, reaches rural customers with digital financial services.

English | 2 pages | 2019 IFC

Apr 10, 2019

Transactional accounts aimed at low-income customers (Bank AV Villas Case Study)

IFC supports the development of meaningful product offerings for low-income individuals to be distributed through the mobile channel.

English | 2 pages | 2019 IFC

Apr 8, 2019

Creating Impact—The Promise of Impact Investing

The report is the most comprehensive assessment so far of the potential global market for impact investing. It estimates that as much as $268 trillion—the financial assets held by institutions and households across the world—is potentially available for investment.

English | 104 pages | 2019 IFC

Apr 8, 2019

Creating Impact - The Promise of Impact Investing

The report is the most comprehensive assessment so far of the potential global market for impact investing. It estimates that as much as $269 trillion—the financial assets held by institutions and households across the world—is potentially available for investment. Channeling just 10 percent of this amount into projects focused on improving social and environmental outcomes would go a long way toward providing the necessary funding for the world to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals and to shift to a lower-carbon future.

English | 104 pages | 2019 IFC

Apr 4, 2019

Myanmar Corporate Governance Scorecard 2018: A Report on the Assessment of Myanmar Companies

The Myanmar Corporate Governance Scorecard 2018 assesses the performance of 24 companies in Myanmar on the basis of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Corporate Governance Scorecard. The report is the joint work of IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, the Securities and Exchange Commission of Myanmar, the Yangon Stock Exchange and the Directorate of Company Investment and Company Administration (DICA).

Apr 4, 2019

Leveraging Big Data for Lending in China (Ant Financial Case Study)

Ant Financial, an affiliate of Alibaba Group, provides microfinancing to women entrepreneurs using online credit assessments.

English | 2 pages | 2019 IFC

Apr 3, 2019

The Case for Responsible Investing in Digital Financial Services

Together with private sector investors, IFC has been leading a global effort to develop new guidelines for responsible investing in digital finance. These guidelines leverage IFC’s significant experience with the Equator Principles and responsible investing in micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) by focusing on strengthening governance, risk management, consumer protection, and financial well-being for the unbanked and underserved—as well as IFC’s experience as advisor and investor in the digital finance space.

English | 8 Pages - April - Note 67 | IFC 2019