This Annual Report reflects on the activities of the ICR Facility from 01 September 2022 to 31 August 2023. The ICR Facility is implemented through three Output Areas.
Output Area 1
The ICR Facility implements interventions to improve the business environment and investment climate following requests from public and private sector organisations in ACP countries. As of 31 August 2023, 52 interventions have been completed with 48% contributing to gender-equality. Reviews done six months after the end of the interventions have so far shown that 22 business reform initiatives have been initiated and/or implemented and 15 public-private dialogue (PPD) processes have been strengthened as a result of our interventions. This includes for example the set-up of a single trading platform for exports and imports by the public sector in Dominica following our intervention, facilitating trading across borders.
Output Area 2
The ICR Facility conducts capacity development interventions for ACP national and regional development finance institutions (DFIs). As of 31 August 2023, 57 ACP DFIs benefitted from capacity building activities. Our assessments and interviews after the intervention showed that, of the seven banks that have received tailor-made support in 2021 and 2022 (including one under Output Area 1), six DFIs improved their performance in at least one pre-defined area. With additional funding from the EU, OACPS and BMZ, ten ACP DFIs have now been selected to receive additional tailor-made support.
Output Area 3
Knowledge products (e.g. lessons learned, best practices, peer-to-peer events, webinars, etc.) that result from the support of the ICR Facility are compiled and shared. In the reporting period, the ICR Facility continued to work on Women Economic Empowerment (WEE), innovative finance and added a new series on youth’s economic empowerment. Furthermore, we launched three Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) with one being focused on business environment reforms for WEE.