ACP Business Friendly Program

“ACP Business-Friendly: Supporting value chains through inclusive policies, investment promotion and alliances” (ACP BF) is an Intra-ACP action funded by the European Union (EU) and the Organization of African, Caribbean and Pacific States (OACPS).

ACP BF is scheduled to run from 2019 to 2024 and supports ACP countries, ACP regional economic communities (RECs), national investment promotion agencies (IPAs) and institutions (IPIs), ACP national investment climate reform bodies, regional private sector development organizations and associations, and ACP agriculture value chain actors alongside SMEs. 

The Program follows a tiered approach with engagements focusing on macro-, meso- and micro-level interventions implemented by the World Bank (WB), the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), and the International Trade Centre (ITC), respectively.

Development Objective

The specific objective of the Program is to support business-friendly and inclusive national and regional policies as well as to strengthen productive capacities and inclusion into global value chains (GVCs). The action is thus designed to achieve two key outcomes of:

1. Adopting and implementing business-friendly, inclusive, and responsible national policies and legal frameworks.

2. Strengthening productive, processing, promoting, and marketing capabilities and value chains.

The WB is implementing the macro-level component of the Program, with interventions to support increased investment in support of the creation of jobs and economic transformation. Expected results include greater regional/intra ACP and global investments and improved firm-level outcomes that will enhance countries’ competitiveness and access to value chains.

Program Description

The WB’s macro-level assistance is provided through three project delivery windows: the country engagement window (CEW), which provides for deep technical support on the Program’s themes for governments; the rapid response window (RRW), which provides expedited support to client countries in addition to the main program themes, largely focused on mitigating the economic risks stemming from COVID-19; and the regional engagement window (REW), which facilitates peer-to-peer learning and provides a channel for knowledge dissemination as well as inter- and intra-regional learning opportunities. Each window seeks to build on existing WB operations and leverage the substantial WB development footprint in the OACPS member states.

Consequently, the WB’s support focuses on two complementary themes, namely:

1. Improving policy, regulatory, and administrative environments informed by strengthened diagnostics on growth, investments, and markets. This assistance concentrates on improving conditions required for the growth of private investment in ACP countries. It addresses barriers to businesses’ ability to enter, establish, grow, and compete in ACP economies and regions. The action also addresses gaps in countries’ investment attraction and retention strategies, which should align with agreed national policy approaches, by working with national institutions, including investment promotion agencies and Ministries of Commerce, Investment, Industry, or similar. It aims to enhance overall regulatory transparency, effectiveness, and predictability for local and cross border businesses and investors, while reducing compliance costs and regulatory room for excessive discretion.
2. Improving the FDI policy environment and developing or enhancing strategies for linking foreign investors with domestic firms. This support centers on enabling key drivers required for companies to compete regionally and internationally, addressing gaps in the design and effectiveness of investment incentives and supplier programs, and boosting quality infrastructure standards together with facilities to support adherence by the private sector.

Through these initiatives, the WB aims to secure more and better jobs through (a) an enhanced investment climate, supported by investment diversification to non-resource-based sectors; (b) a conducive policy and regulatory environment that promotes new entrants, and instils confidence for investors to stay and expand; and (c) quality infrastructure to help domestic firms upgrade their competitiveness and facilitate integration into GVCs.

The Country Engagement Window (CEW) is focused on technical support in relation to the program’s themes for government-level counterparts. Within this window, the WB is operationalizing the findings of the Investment Climate Reform Action Plans through the launch of the implementation phase in the first quarter of 2021. Thus far, country projects have leveraged strong counterpart engagement through extensive consultations across public and private stakeholders to deliver:

• Capacity building and strategic planning support on investment retention and aftercare services, investment grievance mechanisms (IGMs), and licensing alongside inspection support.
• Support on strengthening the legal and regulatory frameworks for investment together with competition objectives.
• Diagnostics and assessment on the Quality Infrastructure ecosystem and the related standards framework.
• Support for just-in-time requests in a multitude of areas, including nearshoring, GVC reconfiguration, and corporate insolvency – the latter of which emerged as priority given increasing numbers of insolvent firms during the COVID-19 pandemic

Disclaimer: Country borders or names do not necessarily reflect the World Bank Group's official position. This map is for illustrative purposes and does not imply the expression of any opinion on the part of the World Bank, concerning the legal status of any country or territory or concerning the delimitation of frontiers or boundaries.

ACP BF activities in Madagascar focus on supporting the Ministry of Industrialization, Trade and Consumer Affairs to modernize the country's investment framework and to deliver more systematic service delivery to investors, while working with counterparts such as the Economic Development Board of Madagascar to improve the business climate in strategic sectors, especially essential oils, through streamlined permitting and regulatory compliance.  To learn more about the World Bank technical assistance offered, please see the ACP Business Friendly Country Brief: Madagascar. To read about the intervention’s reported reforms, please see the Results Stories on Madagascar’s adoption of a new investment law and institutional reforms to reduce the time and cost of G2B services on the island of Nosy Be. 

ACP BF activities in Cabo Verde support Cabo Verde TradeInvest with the implementation of a customer relationship management (CRM) platform for investors and the development of a sector cluster strategy while also working with counterparts such as the government’s Competitiveness Unit to address business regulation constraints that hinder domestic firms, especially as related to insolvency and public procurement laws.  To learn more about the World Bank technical assistance offered, please see the ACP Business Friendly Country Brief: Cabo Verde.

ACP BF activities in Gabon are implemented through counterparts including ANOKPI-Gabon and the High Council for Investment to optimize investment and competition frameworks. The ACP BF project also works with counterparts including the Competition Enforcement Body and National Body for Standards, Conformity Assessment and Metrology to address barriers for domestic firms, SMEs, and women-owned businesses by mapping inspection frameworks, assessing national quality infrastructure, and providing reform recommendations for gender equity laws.
 

ACP BF activities in Zambia support the Zambia Development Agency and Ministry of Commerce, Trade and Industry to strengthen legal frameworks and investor services for foreign direct investment. The project also works with the Business Regulatory Review Agency to reduce administrative burdens through a risk-based approach to regulatory design and enforcement and enhance standards development and testing to strengthen foreign direct investment and export linkages. To learn more about the World Bank technical assistance offered, please see the ACP Business Friendly Country Brief: Zambia. To read about the intervention’s reported reforms, please see the Results Stories on Zambia’s adoption of risk-based reform guidelines and reforms to its investment legal framework. 
 

ACP BF activities in the DR support the Ministry of Industry Commerce and SMEs with the development of a strategic FDI approach that focuses on nearshoring production. Interventions also help to deliver on this strategy by strengthening Special Economic Zones and addressing investment constraints.  To learn more about the World Bank technical assistance offered, please see the ACP Business Friendly Country Brief: Dominican Republic.
 

Angola

ACP BF activities in Angola support the investment promotion agency to strengthen investor services. The project also works with the Competition Authority to optimize legal frameworks governing competition policy.  To learn more about the World Bank technical assistance offered, please see the ACP Business Friendly Country Brief: Angola.
 

Ghana

ACP BF activities in Ghana support the Ghana Investment Promotion Center to strengthen strategic Investment Policy and Promotion capabilities. The project also supports the Ministry of Trade and Industry to implement cross-cutting reforms. Finally, the project also provides technical assistance to the Ghana Standards Authority to streamline the National Quality Infrastructure.  To learn more about the World Bank technical assistance offered, please see the ACP Business Friendly Country Brief: Ghana. To read about the intervention’s reported reforms, please see the Results Story on Ghana’s achieved reforms to the investment-climate reform body.
 

Senegal

ACP BF activities in Senegal chiefly provide support to the Investment Promotion Agency (APIX). The project also supports Senegal to address regulatory constraints related to the business environment and competition. To learn more about the World Bank technical assistance offered, please see the ACP Business Friendly Country Brief: Senegal.

Within the Rapid Response Window (RRW), ACP BF offers expedited support to client countries in addition to the main program themes. The WB’s ACP RRW provides quick and relatively short-term support to client governments aiming to reform their countries’ investment climate, with a special emphasis on mitigating the economic risks stemming from the COVID-19 outbreak. This window finances analytical and capacity building activities to complement existing lending operations of the WB in the ACP region.

The average duration of these interventions is between 12 – 18 months. The current portfolio of Rapid Response activities focuses on investment policy and promotion areas (such as contribution to and development of retention strategies, formulation of sector value propositions, policy guidance on fostering linkages, policy and strategy review and development) and capacity building initiatives focused on investment attraction and retention and regulatory frameworks.

As of December 2021, seven projects based in the ACP region have been funded (and two more are in the process of receiving their grants). Of these, five projects (based in Ethiopia, Mauritania, Mozambique, Sao Tome and Principe, and Uganda) have concluded their activities. In 2022, two additional projects (one in the OECS region and the other in Liberia) will be concluding their activities and two projects (in Haiti and Burundi) will be commencing work.

Regional Engagement Window

The Regional Engagement Window (REW) is designed to foster inter- and intra-regional knowledge exchange around investment climate reforms and policy outcomes within the ACP countries. The below provides examples of the work conducted under two regional engagement window projects.

ACP BF Peer-to-Peer Learning Event in Luanda, Angola

The World Bank held a peer-to-peer learning event in Luanda, Angola on the sidelines of the 10th OACPS Heads of State Summit in December 2022 as a key activity under the Regional Engagement Window. The event convened more than 130 participants, including policymakers and entrepreneurs from ACP countries, delegates from the EUC, UNIDO, ITC, OACPS, and the World Bank. The event fostered peer-to-peer learning among policy makers by sharing ACP BF program experiences, facilitating capacity building by discussing the latest global trends and best practices in the thematic areas of the program, and showcasing program achievements to date. 

SADC Scorecard

As part of this window, the WB is currently developing an investment climate scorecard for the Southern African Development Community (SADC) in collaboration with the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).  

For the Southern African Development Community (SADC, i.e., Angola, Botswana, Comoros, Democratic Republic of Congo DRC, Eswatini, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Seychelles, South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe), the ACP BF Program is developing an investment climate scorecard to assess FDI regulatory restrictiveness in the region. The scorecard is based on information provided by SADC governments (collected through standardized questionnaires), measuring their countries’ key legal and regulatory provisions affecting FDI across 22 sectors. Thematic focus areas are foreign equity limits, FDI screening and approval, employment of foreigners, and operational obstacles. The scorecard (a) contributes to the benchmarking of state reforms, (b) helps monitor policy trends, (c) facilitates dialogue across SADC member states, (d) accelerates progress towards meeting SADC’s industrialization and regional integration goals, and (e) furthers the SADC Secretariat’s monitoring, coordination, and support capabilities.