A Review of Options that Have Been Used to Structure Donor-Funded Technical Assistance Facilities to Support Investments and Investment Environment

Abstract

Donor funded technical assistance (TA) in support of investment climate and investments tend to be focused on two delivery mechanisms: through Trust Funds with International Financial Institutions (IFIs) and through private consultancy firms. Additional approaches include applied research and think-tanks, networks, non-Government Organisations (NGOs) and United Nations (UN) agencies. This rapid review was based on publicly available documents. Given the recent increased donor investment into supporting increased investment flows, many of the examples are recent and reflect donor and implementers reports, and in-house and third-party evaluations. Lessons and evaluations are emerging from the sector, albeit mostly focused on the investments themselves rather than the technical assistance. Clear attribution remains a challenge. Literature that looks more deeply at impact in terms of poverty and gender is limited. Although there was some effort to search in other (European) languages, the results reflect a likely English-language bias. There are also significant variations in term of what different donors and IFIs publish, especially where these include evaluations and post-implementation reports.