In 2018, International Finance Corporation's (IFC’s) shareholders authorized a capital increase of 5.5 billion dollars, the largest increase in its history. The capital increase was based on a strategy that emphasizes creating markets and mobilizing private capital and came with ambitious...

Deep tech companies - those built on advances in biotechnology, robotics, electronics, artificial intelligence, and other advanced technologies - aim to solve complex social and environmental challenges. Today the majority of deep tech companies are being launched in developed countries, yet the...

Blended concessional finance, the combination of commercial finance from the private sector and development finance institutions (DFIs) with concessional finance from public and other sources, is increasingly being used by DFIs to support developmentally important projects where normal DFI or...

The number of forcibly displaced persons has been rising in recent years, and many displacements have become protracted. However, public resources available to assist individuals and families have dwindled, exacerbating already strained situations. Amid this backdrop, private sector initiatives...

This note proposes a high-level framework to assess challenges and policy options to enabling private sector-led investment in 5G connectivity in emerging markets. 5G is the latest mobile network technology and it has the potential to provide high-speed Internet connectivity and enable digital...

Summary of note 96: innovation, investment, and emerging opportunities in today’s textile and apparel value chain textile and apparel manufacturing is a critical creator of formalized jobs, a well-known path to industrialization, and an enabler of value chain relationships that modernize...

Summary of Note 95, how the Tourism Sector in Emerging Markets is Recovering from COVID-19 Tourism is an important sector that accounts for 10 percent of global gross domestic product and one in every 10 jobs. As a result of COVID-19-related travel restrictions, the United Nations World Tourism...

Deep tech companies aim to address the world’s biggest challenges. These include providing Internet access to the unconnected, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, significantly increasing productivity gains across industries, and helping to solve many other intractable problems, particularly in...

The Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic is having a significant negative impact on the private sector in developing economies, and businesses and individuals in fragile and conflict-affected situations are among the most severely affected. The pandemic has evolved rapidly from a health emergency to...

The world’s stocks of natural resources its natural capital and the rich ecosystem it provides support business and economies to the tune of forty-four trillion in economic value each year. Yet the enormous value of this natural capital has been neglected and largely invisible from private...