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Renewal & Consolidation of IFC Advisory Services in Europe and Central Asia FY11-15

Summary Information


IFC Advisory Services operation in Europe and Central Asia (ECA) is a partnership with donors and governments to support private sector development in line with IFC's overall strategic objectives in the region. This is implemented through IFC's five global business lines for advisory services: Access to Finance, Infrastructure Advisory, Corporate Advice, Investment Climate and Environmental and Social Sustainability.
Approved funding (FY11-15)
  • IFC: Up to $50 million
  • Donors and Clients: $150 million (expected)
Strategy:

Building on the strong results achieved so far, the emerging strategic directions for advisory work in ECA largely revolve around the three cross-cutting themes of crisis response/recovery, climate change, and agribusiness, which are relevant across all five of IFC's global advisory business lines. While the majority of planned advisory programs in ECA will be along the three strategic themes, specific sub regional needs will also be addressed, such as pre-accession issues in the Western Balkans. It should also be noted that while the crisis response theme is short to medium term in nature, as stressed in the recent G-20 Communiqué, the challenge of restoring access to finance to support economic recovery will remain for a longer time with a strong role for the World Bank Group. In terms of geographic coverage, IFC will undertake a broader range of advisory initiatives in the IDA countries, especially in Central Asia. In the middle incomes countries (MICs), IFC will be either highly selective or will play no advisory role at all - in line with corporate strategic priorities.

Selected Expected Results:
Crisis Response and Recovery
  • Reach at least 2000 stakeholders in the financial sector and among SMEs with information on crisis-related management topics;
  • Facilitate and support at least $250 million in new financing for SMEs through banks and microfinance institutions, resulting in up to 200,000 new loans;
  • Save $300 million through reduction in direct administrative costs of regulation.
Agribusiness
  • Reach 5,000 farms/agribusiness entities with advisory support to improve productivity;
  • Facilitate at least $300 million in new investments (including in agri-related infrastructure and agri-finance);
  • Generate at least $50 million in savings as a result of regulatory reform.
Climate Change
  • Avoid at least 15 million tons of lifetime GHG emissions;
  • Generate $1 billion in climate change related investments, including from IFC.
Results to date:

To date, the advisory business in the ECA region has consistently delivered significant development results, including operational and financial efficiencies for the private sector generated by improvements to investment climate, improved business practices at the company level, financing enabled (both from IFC and other sources), and increased access to finance and to infrastructure. Since FY05, each dollar spent by IFC and its donor partners on AS programs in ECA has translated into:
  • $52 million of new investments
  • $45 million of new revenues
  • $16 million in cost savings
  • $31 million in funds released
  • $45 million in fiscal impacts