The World Bank Group guarantee instruments 1990 - 2007 : an independent evaluation

Foreign direct investment and private capital flows are highly concentrated geographically, with almost half of them reaching the top five destinations. These flows tend to evade many high-risk countries, with the exception of those directed to extractive industries. Regulatory and contractual risks, particularly in infrastructure, have inhibited investments in many parts of the developing world. A core objective of the World Bank Group (WBG) has been to support the flow of private investment for development; guarantees and insurance have been among the instruments that the Group has used to pursue this objective.This evaluation assesses the effectiveness in the use of guarantee and insurance products by the WBG. It finds that these instruments have effectively advanced WBG strategic objectives, in particular facilitating the flow of private investment to high-risk sectors and countries. The diverse range of these instruments has helped to meet the demand for risk mitigation under a variety of circumstances. The Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency, (MIGA), a relatively small institution of 100 staff, has issued 17 billion in guarantees and meets a gap in the provision of political risk insurance that private providers are unable to meet. The World Bank's partial risk guarantee has supported large and complex public-private partnership infrastructure projects in high-risk countries. Its partial credit guarantees have introduced countries to commercial markets or reintroduced them following a crisis. The International Finance Corporation's (IFC) guarantee instruments have led its entry in the market for local currency finance and have helped improve access to finance for underserved market segments.