The objective of the Low-Income Housing Finance Project for India is to provide access to sustainable housing finance for low income households, to purchase, build or upgrade their dwellings.
... See More + The restructuring will reallocate SDR 1.97m (SDR 1.31m from component 1 and SDR 0.66m from component 3) to the refinancing line (component 2). This will essentially amount to an allocation of the entire IDA financing of SDR 66.09 m to component 2 of the Project which originally was envisaged to be SDR 64.12m. The financing for components 1 and 3 will be supported through counterpart financing by NHB.
See Less -
This paper assesses the impact of media sentiment on international equity prices using a dataset of more than 4.5 million Reuters articles published across the globe between 1991 and 2015.
... See More + Media sentiment robustly predicts daily returns in both advanced and emerging markets, even after controlling for known determinants of stock prices. But not all news sentiment is alike. A local (country-specific) increase in news optimism (pessimism) predicts a small and transitory increase (decrease) in local returns. By contrast, changes in global news sentiment have a larger impact on equity returns around the world, which does not reverse in the short run. Media sentiment affects mainly foreign -- rather than local -- investors: although local news optimism attracts international equity flows for a few days, global news optimism generates a permanent foreign equity inflow. Our results confirm the value of media content in capturing investor sentiment.
See Less -
Policy Research Working Paper WPS8649 NOV 19, 2018
The development objective of the Housing Finance Project for Rwanda is to expand access to housing finance to households and to support capital market development in Rwanda.
... See More + It has two project components. First component, Provision of Long-term Finance to Expand Housing Finance includes a Line of Credit (LoC) to support the provision of housing loans by Rwandan financial institutions; and Second component, Technical Assistance and Implementation Support is to strengthen the enabling environment for affordable housing and financing through technical assistance (TA) and capacity building.
See Less -
The development objective of the Health System Strengthening for Better Maternal and Child Health Results Project for Congo, Democratic Republic of is to improve utilization and quality of maternal and child health services in targeted areas within the recipient's territory.
... See More + The restructuring will reallocate funds between disbursement categories.
See Less -
The IDA18 IFC-MIGA Private Sector Window (PSW) is an important innovation as part of the IDA18 transformational package.1 Responding to the call for mobilizing the private sector to support IDA countries’ economic transformation efforts, PSW is a partnership among IDA, IFC and MIGA to maximize private finance for development.
... See More + By leveraging IFC and MIGA business platforms, for the first time, IDA is able to provide direct support to the private sector in the poorest IDA markets. During the IDA18 replenishment discussion, IDA Partners expressed strong support for the creation of the PSW. They encouraged IDA Management to “pursue a flexible ‘learning by doing’ approach, recognizing that the PSW will require engaging in difficult markets with a high degree of uncertainty.” This paper responds to Partners’ request to take stock of progress, discuss lessons learned from the initial phase of implementation, and introduce next steps. This builds on the PSW progress updates that were provided at the IDA technical sessions at the sidelines of Spring and Annual Meetings. The paper is structured as follows: Section II briefly revisits the main features of PSW design; Section III provides the context of PSW implementation in the first 15months of IDA18 replenishment period; Section IV presents the implementation progress of PSWincluding setting up the operational platform, commitments, expected results and pipeline; SectionV shares the initial lessons learned from PSW implementation; last, Section VI concludes withrecommendations for the remainder of the IDA18 period and beyond.
See Less -
This paper responds to the commitment made during the IDA18 replenishment that Management would report on IDA18 Scale-up Facility (SUF) implementation experience at the IDA18 Mid-Term Review Meeting (MTR).
... See More + The analysis in this report is limited by the short track record of the SUF. Thus, while it can present information on process and on commitments made to date, more time will be needed to examine impact and draw conclusions about outcomes. This paper is structured as follows: Section II presents the facts and findings of the IDA18 SUF along key country and sectoral dimensions and reviews operational aspects of the Facility, including eligibility and allocation criteria, prioritization criteria, and review. Section III presents lessons learned during implementation of the IDA18 SUF and outlines possible future adjustments which could enhance the SUF’s impact in IDA countries.
See Less -
This paper discusses the landscape for private equity and venture capital financing in Ghana. It provides an overview of the private equity and venture capital market in the country, describing key players, including funds, fund managers, investors, and public sector entities.
... See More + The paper provides an analysis of key market drivers and impediments, as well as legal, regulatory, and taxation drivers and impediments that affect Ghana’s private equity and venture capital industry.
See Less -
Policy Research Working Paper WPS8617 OCT 18, 2018
This paper documents the best practices and practical lessons learned from Malaysia’s largest mandatory public provident fund, the Employees Provident Fund (EPF).
... See More + The objective of this paper is to increase the knowledge base of efficient pension funds for developing countries, drawing from Malaysia’s experiences. Findings include key critical factors that contributed to the successof the EPF, from a small pension fund set up in 1949, to become one of the largest pension fund among developing countries and the 15th largest in the world. This paper summarizes the EPF’s key strategies in corporate governance, investment, and operational strategies, as well as policies deployed by the EPF in managing its assets. The lessons from the EPF come from three main factors. Firstly, the EPF has developed a strong governance structure which discourages external politicalmeddling and encourages transparency and accountability. Secondly, the EPF’s investments strategy, guided by its Strategic Asset Allocation, including diversifying to foreign markets and new asset classes, has enabled the Fund to produce enhanced returns. Thirdly, the EPF’s operational effectiveness which is driven by the professionalism of their employees and their continuous improvement for members’ benefit. Nonetheless, several challenges remain in the present and in the future. The first challenge involves demographic changes as Malaysia is ageing more rapidlythan other countries and even now a sizable number of workers do not have the recommended minimum savings level needed for retirement. A revamp of the current model is needed to ensure that members will be financially independent post-retirement. The second challenge is lack of coverage: only half of those in the labour force are contributing to the EPF, which leaves the other half without oldage pension coverage. A reform agenda needs to expand coverage particularly for the self-employed. The final challenges are maintaining public trust and staying relevant, especially in the age of the fourth industrial revolution and the emerging gig economy that has different needs and demands. This case study will hopefully be of benefit to both policy makers andpractitioners, particularly in the developing world. It could help play an important part in designing a successful provident fund to contribute to a comprehensive social safety net for citizens.
See Less -
Working Paper 131289 OCT 01, 2018
Price,William Joseph; Khalif,Muhammed Abdul; De Luna-Martinez,Jose; Zhang,Wei; Arshad,Ashraf BinDisclosed
This paper discusses the landscape for private equity and venture capital financing in Kenya. It provides an overview of the private equity and venture capital market in the country, describing key players, including funds, fund managers, investors, and public sector entities.
... See More + The paper provides an analysis of key market drivers and impediments, as well as legal/regulatory/taxation drivers and impediments that affect Kenya’s private equity and venture capital industry.
See Less -
Policy Research Working Paper WPS8598 OCT 01, 2018
This report provides a systematic assessment of business angel activities, and the ecosystem surrounding innovation finance, in the Czech Republic.
... See More + Based on literature reviews, published data sources and local stakeholder interviews, the report distills findings related to the demand for and supply of risk investments, and offers policy recommendations for stimulating business angels. The report characterizes the Angel ecosystem as emerging with potential for growth. It is small both in terms of the number of investors and the amount invested. There appears to be a general lack of syndication of investments and concentration of investments in the capital (Prague) and in the information, communication, and technology (ICT) sector. On the demand side, a credible deal flow does exist, although it falls short of constituting a critical mass needed to support the development of the market. While issues in the local environment may affect the flow of angel investments, these are not insurmountable, based on the country’s competitive ranking on relevant global and European indicators. Finally, the report proposes a number of policy recommendations for enhancing business angel awareness and investments, including data collection and mapping of early stage market activities (short-term), creation of Czech National Angel Association (medium-term), and implementation of incentivization measures such as co-investment funds and tax incentives (long-term).
See Less -
Working Paper 131855 OCT 01, 2018
Aridi,Anwar; Gray,Nelson Campbell; Ong Lopez,Anne Beline ChuaDisclosed
