Over 70 percent of the farm workers in Tajikistan are women. Most face difficult working conditions and are paid in agricultural outputs such as oil, rather than in cash. When the South Tajikistan Cotton Lending Project started in early 2007, IFC and its donor, the Canadian International...

Understanding what to do about policy reform is the (relatively) easy part, our clients tell us. The hard part is figuring out how to do it. The path to reform is fraught with the details of practical implementation, the challenges of working with stakeholders, and the mammoth task of ensuring...

Of the many challenges to scaling up the Cleaner Production (CP) advisory services program, the most difficult one relates to the market: engaging clients and building a robust pipeline of projects. In this article, the author concentrate mainly on the lessons learned from International Finance...

Privatizing electricity utilities while policy and regulatory reforms are still ongoing may not always be advisable. However, International Finance Corporations' (IFC's) experience with privatization of electricity distribution in Albania shows that when there is strong political will and...

In 2008, Uzbekistan significantly improved its rank in the doing business 'getting credit" indicator, moving up 38 positions from the previous year, and by July a draft law titled, 'On Sharing Credit Information," which meets best international standards, was developed by a six-member working...

In development work, the authors all have heard many words of advice for effective work with governments. But succeeding at policy work is easier said than done. This paper describes how International Finance Corporation's (IFC's) Georgia Corporate Governance Project was able to support the...

As the Western Balkan economies look toward integration into the European Union, each is striving to increase its competitiveness and improve its economic growth. Considerable momentum has been developing on business enabling environment (BEE) reform. The overall doing business rankings for the...

In policy reform Advisory Services (AS) projects the concept of 'good practices' often floats around, not knowing when or where to land on a 'project runway.' So the question here is how and when do you inject good practices into regulatory reforms so they yield maximum impact? Whenever terms...

More than a year and a half has passed since International Finance Corporation (IFC) Advisory Services in Eastern Europe and Central Asia (AS ECA) introduced a standard methodology for assessing aggregate cost savings (ACS) for businesses resulting from IFC-supported business enabling...

The International Finance Corporation (IFC) Vinnytsya Fruit Supply-Chain Development Project works to strengthen the farmer supply chain for one of the world's largest fruit processors. This smart lesson focuses on the project's experience using public education tools demonstration programs,...