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Washington, D.C., April 22, 2013
—IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, is stepping up investment and advisory activities in fragile and conflict-affected countries and regions to help private businesses expand, create jobs, and spur economic development.
In fiscal year 2012, IFC invested more than $530 million in countries affected by fragility and conflict and provided advisory services, including through the Conflict-Affected States in Africa program. IFC aims to increase investments by 50 percent over the next three years, working in coordination with the World Bank and the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency, or MIGA.
“Jobs can help break the cycle of crime, violence, and conflict,” said Jin-Yong Cai, IFC’s Executive Vice President and CEO. “Private businesses create nine out of every 10 jobs. But in fragile countries, these businesses struggle to get by with an unreliable supply of electricity and a lack of investment, which limits their growth. IFC is playing an important role in helping such countries rebuild their private sectors and get their populations back to work.”
A recent
IFC study
found that a lack of access to finance, inadequate infrastructure, insufficient job skills and training, and a poor investment climate are the biggest constraints to job creation in developing economies. Improving access to electricity in countries that have severe outages can increase annual job growth by more than 4 percent, while bank loans can help increase it by more than 3 percent.
Responsible private sector investment and job creation in fragile countries was the focus of a forum held on the sidelines of the Spring Meetings of the World Bank Group and IMF. The event was organized by the g7+—an independent group of 18 fragile countries and regions—with IFC, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark, and co-hosted by the U.S. government.
In a
communiqué
, the g7+ stated that a new area of cooperation should include an “enhanced dialogue with private sector actors aimed at increasing the contribution from private sector investments in transitions out of fragility.”
About IFC
IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, is the largest global development institution focused exclusively on the private sector. We help developing countries achieve sustainable growth by financing investment, mobilizing capital in international financial markets, and providing advisory services to businesses and governments. In FY12, our investments reached an all-time high of more than $20 billion, leveraging the power of the private sector to create jobs, spark innovation, and tackle the world’s most pressing development challenges. For more information, visit
www.ifc.org
.
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