'Creating Markets' to Leverage the Private Sector for Sustainable Development and Growth : An Evaluation of the World Bank Group's Experience Through 16 Case Studies

Abstract

The international development community acknowledges that the SDGs will not be achieved without greater participation from the private sector. Estimates for investment needs in developing countries alone range from $3.3 trillion to $4.5 trillion per year. Up to 70 percent of the investment gap could come from the private sector, according to international estimates. Engaging the private sector as a financier, operator, service provider, or innovator in the pursuit of the SDGs requires efficiently functioning and competitive markets and effective governments. Such markets only emerge when there is a sufficiently conducive enabling environment that not only addresses market failures through policy reform but also improving underperforming markets through demonstration effects, enhancing competition, innovation, integration and enhancing skills through investments and advisory services. This evaluation was designed to shed light on several key aspects of the IFC's creating markets agenda and experience on the ground. Those key aspects include the following: (i) Identification of market creating opportunities; (ii) Channels through which IFC contributes to market creation; (iii) Results from IFC's market creating interventions; and (iv) Success factors driving the Bank Group's market creation results.