useful information and links

DFID Paper on How to Assess and Improve the Investment Climate

DFID guidance note that looks at what the investment climate is, why it matters and how DFID can get involved.

Donor Committee for Enterprise Development Business Environment Conference

The Committee promotes enterprise development, particularly for small enterprises, in developing countries. The Committee's website includes the proceeding of a conference in Cairo at the end of 2005 on the business environment.

Engineers Against Poverty / Institute of Civil Engineers Report : "Modifying infrastructure procurement to enhance social development"

This report presents the findings of research undertaken by Engineers Against Poverty and ICE in collaboration with Engineering without Frontiers. The aim of the report is to identify opportunities to improve the delivery of social development objectives by modifying the procurement of infrastructure projects.

Financial Times Special Report on Infrastructure

FT Special Report, 21 November 2006.  Read joint Business Action for Africa and Engineers Against Poverty Submission to the FT Special Report

Fitch Ratings / USAID

With support from USAID, ratings have been developed for the following African countries: Cameroon, Cape Verde, Malawi, Gambia, Ghana, Lesotho, Mali, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria and South Africa.

Infrastructure Consortium for Africa

The Infrastructure Consortium for Africa is a major new effort to accelerate progress to meet the urgent needs of Africa in support of economic growth and development.  A partnership between bilateral donors, multilateral agencies and African institutions, the ICA makes its members more effective at supporting infrastructure by pooling efforts in selected key areas.

Investment Climate Facility

The AU-NEPAD Investment Climate Facility (ICF) is a major initiative to support investment climate reform in Africa – tackling the issues highlighted by the APRM and other processes.  Support for the ICF was recommended by the Commission for Africa and by business leaders at the 2005 G8 Business Action for Africa Summit.

IFC Foreign Investment Advisory Services (FIAS)

FIAS advises governments of developing and transition countries on how to improve their investment climate for domestic and foreign investors. FIAS is a multi-donor service of the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and the World Bank, and focuses on four core areas: investment climate diagnostics; investment laws and promotion; administrative barriers solutions; and industry competitiveness.

IFC Private Enterprise Partnership for Africa

This was established in 2005 to stimulate private sector growth.  It establishes partnerships with donors, governments, and the private sector to design and deliver technical assistance programs and advisory services that improve the investment climate, mobilize private sector investment, and enhance the competitiveness of small- and medium-sized businesses.

Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA)

MIGA is a multilateral risk mitigator, promoting foreign direct investment into developing countries. In 2006, sub-Saharan Africa was the top guarantee destination, with 21 contracts in support of 13 projects, totaling $180 million in coverage.

NEPAD-OECD Africa Investment Initiative

The Initiative, launched in Johannesburg in November 2003, aims to foster sustainable growth, employment creation and poverty reduction by advancing private sector development in African countries. 

The OECD Initiative on investment for development

Launched in support of the Monterrey Consensus, the Policy Framework for Investment (PFI) is intended as a non-prescriptive checklist of issues for consideration by any interested governments engaged in domestic reform, regional co-operation or international policy dialogue aimed at creating an environment that is attractive to domestic and foreign investors and that enhances the benefits of investment to society. The Framework is part of a broader OECD Initiative on Investment for Development, together with two other projects on drawing lessons on the use of ODA in support of countries’ efforts to mobilise investment for development, and sharing the OECD’s experience with investment policy peer reviews as capacity building mechanisms.

OECD: Promoting Private Investment for Development – the role of ODA

This report provides guidance to members of the OECD’s Development Assistance Committee (DAC) on using ODA more effectively to mobilise private investment for development. It focuses on how development agencies can help influence the conditions that lead to increased levels of private investment and on how investment can better contribute to the achievement

UNCTAD Blue Books

Blue Book on Best Practices for Investment Promotion and Facilitation - a result of a consultative process between UNCTAD and the Japan Bank for International Co-operation (JBIC) provides guidance to constructive dismantling of the remaining administrative bottlenecks in the way of promoting FDI.

UNCTAD World Investment Reports

The World Investment Report focuses on trends in foreign direct investment (FDI) worldwide, at the regional and country levels and emerging measures to improve its contribution to development. Every issue of the Report has: Analysis of the trends in FDI; Ranking of the largest transnational corporations in the world; In-depth analysis of a selected topic related to FDI; Policy analysis and recommendation; Statistical annex on FDI.

UNDP Stock Market Initiative

UNDP’s African Financial Market Initiative was launched to help African countries obtain sovereign credit ratings and strengthen their capital markets.  The first result came in September 2003, with the Republic of Ghana being assigned a 'B+' long-term foreign currency sovereign credit rating by Standard & Poor's Ratings Services, the UNDP's partner..

World Bank Africa Regional Programme on Enterprise Development

The Africa RPED is an ongoing research project with the overall purpose of generating business knowledge and policy advise useful to private sector manufacturing development in Sub-Saharan Africa. The program provides policy advice to the World Bank, donor agencies, client governments and other interested parties seeking to improve the business environment in these countries.

World Bank Doing Business Report and Database

The Doing Business reports and database provides objective measures of business regulations and their enforcement.

World Bank Doing Business in 2007

The Report finds that Africa was the third fastest reforming region in the world in 2006, with South Africa and Mauritius now among the top 30 places in the world in terms of the ease of doing business.  Tanzania and Ghana are among the top 10 reformers.  Mozambique has set itself the goal of being the easiest place to do business in southern Africa.  Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger are all aiming for the top position in West Africa.

World Bank Doing Business in 2006: Sub-Saharan Africa Regional Profile

A distillation from the Doing Business Report in 2006 of trends and data relevant to sub-Saharan Africa.

World Bank Investment Climate Assessments

Investment Climate Assessments identify and prioritize investment climate constraints, benchmark reform progress, provide cross-country comparisons of investment climate indicators, and help countries forge broad consensus on priority areas for reform.

World Development Report 2005

A Better Investment Climate For Everyone: The WDR 2005 concludes that "accelerating growth and poverty reduction requires governments to reduce the policy risks, costs, and barriers to competition facing firms of all types—from farmers and micro-entrepreneurs to local manufacturing companies and multinationals". 

World Bank Institute's Public-Private Partnership in Infrastructure (PPPI)

The goal of WBI's Public-Private Partnership in Infrastructure (PPPI) program is to support developing countries' efforts to etablish a sound regulatory and business environment conducive to the development of public-private partnerships for the provision of affordable and sustainable infrastructure services.

World Bank: Making Finance Work for Africa

World Bank study that emphasizes two key priorities for financial sector policy in Africa: growth and access. It suggests that reforms should aim: (i) to increase the availability and lower the cost of credit to productive enterprises; and (ii) to extend the reach of basic savings, payments, credit and insurance services for low income people and small enterprises. Read about, and download presentations delivered at, the World Bank Roundtable on "Making Finance Work for Africa", 5-6 March, 2007, Nairobi, Kenya..


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