Côte d’Ivoire has been an African success story for much of the last decade. The World Bank estimates that its GDP growth rate was on average 8.2% in the seven years between 2012 and 2019, one of the most dynamic in the world. Much of its growth comes from small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), which account for […]
Development finance institutions across Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific can play an important role in supporting women entrepreneurs to realise their ambitions. A new analysis highlights a range of ideas to enable them to increase their activities to support this key market segment.
Official figures show that nearly half of all Kigali women of working-age were in work, compared to two thirds of men. Working women, however, face many challenges, including limited schooling and the need to combine paid work with child-care. The majority of women work informally without social protection or a regular income.
In Papua New Guinea, two in three women experience violence in their lifetime. Since 2014, a forceful movement has developed within the business community to change the investment climate and prevent gender-based violence, offer support to victims, and create a safer working environment. As a result, companies now report fewer days of absence – a success for women, for PNG and for its public and private actors.
In Jamaica, the social economy has grown rapidly in the past decade. However, Charmaine Brimm of the Planning Institute of Jamaica, a government agency which manages policies for the country’s sustainable development, says that the sector has developed in a ‘highly informal and fragmented way.’
The Tanzanian agriculture sector depends heavily on the contributions of women and young people. Many of them would like to invest in new machinery, in more land or to use better farming methods. But often they fail because they do not qualify for bank loans. The Tanzania Agricultural Development Bank has set out to change this.
Many DFIs in the Pacific and the Caribbean strategically support local businesses in their launch, develop and growth phases, both with financial and non-financial means, but maintaining a balance between financial sustainability and achieving goals is not always easy. Empowering people to engage and raise their voice is the first step to change.
Often, the countries that need private investment and economic growth the most are also the most difficult to invest and do business in. Not only do businesses in these countries struggle to access markets and obtain inputs, but their governments are also challenged to manage the business environment and economy. As a result, unemployment and […]
The Covid-19 pandemic has had a major impact on people’s life as well as the public and private sectors and continues to pose huge risks from a social and economic perspective as well as on financial systems and economic stability.
Multiple African countries seek to industrialise their economy through industrial parks. To ensure this will lead to positive development impacts, it is key that those parks are sustainable with regards to their economic, environmental, and social performance as well as the performance of the park management.
As with any organisation engaged in lending, the management of credit risk is a key factor for development banks, yet they additionally have to balance economic sustainability with development impact. To this end, a solid credit risk management is key for DFIs, which can be challenging.
Ghana wants better and more sustainable jobs across the country and is ready to invest more than USD 13 million to that end. But the to-do list is long. If the strategy succeeds, thousands could be lifted from precarious employment.
