Loans on Honor: a Comprehensive Mechanism to Foster Development by Supporting MSMEs

In ACP countries, a large number of companies, and especially the smallest and the youngest, are struggling to find the financing they need to grow, despite a general awareness of their crucial role in job creation and economic development. In recent years, solutions have emerged by combining both support and financing. The Prêts d’honneurs/Loan on Honour mechanism is one of these solutions that has gradually developed in Africa, in particular through decentralized cooperation projects.

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.

Webinar: Trends in Care Economy Policies in African, Caribbean and Pacific countries

Women's Economic Empowerment

Summary The Care Economy — including childcare, eldercare and domestic work — is vital to society, yet it remains invisible, undervalued, and unevenly distributed. The disproportionate share of care and domestic work that falls on women and girls, especially when it is unpaid, is a key barrier to their participation in the workforce and negatively […]

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 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 quizzes, […]

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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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 […]

Business Environment Reforms and the Care Economy: The Case of Childcare and Parental Leave Policies

Care economy is an integral part of Business Environment Reforms (BER). It is central to advance Women’s Economic Empowerment (WEE). In its broad definition, the term care economy encompasses labour and services that support caregiving in all its forms. It includes both unpaid and paid care work, for instance childcare and breastfeeding, care for the […]

Supporting Diaspora Entrepreneurship To Boost ACP Country Development

This report focuses on how African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries can benefit from the resources of the diaspora to achieve the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. It is written as part of the series of reports on “Innovative approaches to support entrepreneurs”. The report finds that, in addition to innovative tools such as crowdfunding […]

Business Environment Reforms to Support Women-Owned Businesses in ACP Countries

Legal, Administrative And Policy Reforms To Access Finance And Manage Businesses Executive Summary: Business creation and business revenue growth is a crucial engine of economic growth and job creation. Investing in women is not only a moral imperative; it is good business. Taking action now to advance gender equality can add $13 trillion to global Gross Domestic Product […]

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Take Action Now: Rally for Inclusive Youth Employment through Business Environment Reforms

Meet Mariama, a highly qualified young professional, who has decided to work in the UK, instead of Ghana, the country where she was trained. Her diverse professional and voluntary journey has enabled her to hone her skills in customer service, business administration and community outreach. Despite her skills and experience, Mariama struggled to find employment […]

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 […]

Society’s hidden power: the care economy

Adeline, a young woman from Burkina Faso, wanted to get a job, but she faced the challenge of organising caring for her youngest children. Lots of other women from her area had taken up roles in a government-backed roadbuilding and construction programme and many of them, with no alternative, left their children with older sisters, […]

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 […]

You may also be interested in these event recordings

Webinar: Trends in Care Economy Policies in African, Caribbean and Pacific countries

Summary The Care Economy — including childcare, eldercare and domestic work — is vital to society, yet it remains invisible, undervalued, and unevenly distributed. The disproportionate share of care and domestic work that falls on women and girls, especially when it is unpaid, is a key barrier to their participation in the workforce and negatively […]

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 […]

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