Improving the Business Environment for Climate Adaptation: Needs and Opportunities for Investment in ACP Countries

Climate Change is the most significant challenge to achieving sustainable development in ACP countries. With limited availability of domestic or international finance, ACP countries need to stimulate private investment for climate change adaptation. Improving the business environment for climate adaptation is key to unlocking private sector development and investment by the private sector in sustainable development. To focus investment climate and business environment reforms in a way to maximise the mobilisation of investment for climate adaptation, ACP countries need to prioritise sectors and businesses where there is a clear business case and return on investment for the private sector. By understanding the different needs of these businesses – from micro agricultural enterprises, to large water utilities and financial institutions – investment climate reforms can be tailored to unlock investments and accelerate climate adaptation.

Upcoming events

By supporting business climate and investment environment reforms, the ICR Facility aims to help generate more decent jobs and contribute to improving livelihoods in African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries.

Training on Business Environment Reforms to Support Women’s Economic Empowerment

Women's Economic Empowerment

Training on Busines Environment Reforms to Support Women’s Economic Empowerment What? The course develops awareness and provides tools to advance Women’s Economic Empowerment (WEE) through Business Environment Reform (BER) in African Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries. Participants learn to apply a gender-sensitive and gender-transformative lens when they work on their own reforms, taking into account […]

How to develop a gender approach in Development Finance Institutions

Access to Finance

What? In these free, self-paced training modules you will learn how to develop a gender finance approach in the development finance institution. It is an interactive way to learn more about institutional gender mainstreaming, actions and measures to be taken in the organization to ensure gender inclusion. The training contains videos, texts, interactive exercises and […]

Training on Business Environment Reforms Tools

Business Regulation and Policy

In these self-paced modules in “Business Environment Reform Tools”, representatives from public and private stakeholders in African, Caribbean, and Pacific (ACP) countries will learn how to use practical and straight-forward tools to improve the business environment in African, Caribbean and Pacific countries. You will earn a PDF certificate once you pass all the tasks of the four modules. […]

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An Event for Change: Gaps and Solutions to Advance Women’s Economic Empowerment

During the 05 and 06 June 2024, the ICR4WEE Conference welcomed over 140 participants, inclusive of attendees from 36 ACP countries, in Kigali, Rwanda. This ICReport provides a comprehensive overview of the Conference, and reflects upon the critical topics examined throughout the two days of interactive panel discussion and debate, including: Gender-sensitive industrial policies […]

Business environment reforms for youth employment in ACP countries: lowering barriers to employment and recruitment

This report discusses potential business environment reforms (BER) that present opportunities for advancing youth employment across African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries. The ACP countries face a significant challenge in this regard, and policymakers play a crucial role in crafting a business environment that actively supports youth employment. The report offers four broad business environment […]

Trends in Gender Finance in ACP Development Finance Institutions: Overview and Selected Examples

Development Finance Institutions (DFIs) have a key role to play in promoting gender responsive finance and women’s economic empowerment (WEE). While the initiatives of multilateral banks are well-documented and communicated via events and publications, such as 2021’s “Public Development Banks Driving Gender Equality: an Overview of Practices and Measurement Frameworks” by UNWOMEN and the Agence […]

Honour Loans: A Comprehensive Mechanism to Foster Development by Supporting MSMEs

The honour loans mechanism is a multidimensional one combining financing free of interest or requirement for securities or guarantees, with support to entrepreneurs. It has several benefits for entrepreneurs: Firstly, it finances their development, serving as seed funds and strengthening their project’s equity. It can therefore create financial leverage with microcredit or banking loans. Secondly, it can help […]

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Finance solutions for female entrepreneurs in Botswana

Botswana is looking to reshape its future. The longest uninterrupted democracy in Africa, the middle-income country has set out a transformational agenda that it hopes will see it achieve prosperity for all. Vision 2036 has an aim to turn Botswana into a high-income country by building an inclusive and thriving private sector, with a particular […]

How Technical Assistance for Public Development Banks can be Transformational in Achieving National Climate and Gender Objectives

On financing and capital markets, women are worse-off than men. Women have less access to finance, assets and collateral. Additionally, the world is faced with an unprecedented climate crisis, with disasters increasing in their severity, frequency and unpredictability. To achieve a gender-equal and ecological transformation of economies, Public Development Banks (PDBs) come into play. PDBs […]

“Sargassum is bigger than us”: Dealing with the adverse effects of climate change in the tourism industry

Last month, we embarked on a visit to Belize as part of our Investment Climate Reform (ICR) facility intervention, aiming to evaluate the business environment for the tourism sector of Ambergris Caye. This Caribbean destination is renowned for its vibrant marine life, beaches, and the warm hospitality of its people, attracting over 60% of all visitors to Belize. One of the recurring concerns that emerged during our discussions with private and public representatives was the persistent and escalating presence of sargassum seaweed. This natural phenomenon, intensified by the impacts of climate change, poses a significant threat to the local tourism industry and its associated businesses.

How a cluster development approach can transform Togo’s sesame sector

With abundant natural and human resources, Togo has the potential to further capitalize on industries like sesame as a key driver for economic growth, job generation and women's economic empowerment. The Ministry of Investment Promotion and the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, and Rural Development worked with the ICR Facility with the objective of implementing a cluster development approach for the sesame sector. The intervention included mapping of the sector, building a strategy using the cluster diamond method and developing an action plan to boost the competitiveness of the sector.

You may also be interested in these event recordings

Business Environment Reform for Supporting Young Entrepreneurs: Opportunities for the ACP Region

Many countries in the ACP (Africa, Caribbean and Pacific) region have made supporting young entrepreneurs a top priority for economic development and youth employment. Despite this, young entrepreneurs face challenging business conditions and complicated policy and regulatory contexts in launching and running their businesses. This webinar hosted by the ICR Facility provided an opportunity for […]

The Role of Investment Promotion Agencies in Public-Private Dialogue in ACP Countries

Through Public-Private Dialogue, Investment Promotion Agencies contribute to economic policy making and reform, whether through formal and structured processes or informally through their day-to-day activities and contacts with investors. In a previous series of peer-to-peer workshops, IPAs from 8 countries in the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) region had the opportunity to exchange knowledge, share […]

Trends in Gender Finance in DFIs in African Region

Development Finance Institutions (DFIs) have a key role to play in promoting gender responsive finance and women’s economic empowerment (WEE). While the initiatives of multilateral banks are well-documented and communicated via events and publications, visibility of the efforts of national and sub-regional DFIs on this topic is low. Gender finance is not commonly highlighted on their websites […]

Using Domestic Financial and Fiscal Policy to Mobilise Private Adaptation Finance in ACP Countries

The countries of the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) region are some of the most vulnerable to climate change. Scaling up finance for climate adaptation is critical, particularly across the diversity of private actors from households, through micro-small medium enterprises (MSMEs) to corporations, financial institutions and investors; all of which are influenced by public policy […]

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