The EIB-GDN Programme in Applied Development Finance

The European Investment Bank has partnered with Global Development Network (GDN) to study the impact of projects in sub-Saharan African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries, under a training and mentorship programme for local researchers.

The programme aims to deepen understanding of the results and impact of operations under the Impact Financing Envelope (IFE), as well as enhancing capacity for impact assessment in ACP countries and within the EIB. The research is carried out by talented researchers from ACP countries in three twelve-month cycles. Each researcher spends a year on a “deep dive” study of an IFE project, during which time they receive training, guidance and mentoring by the GDN, the EIB and expert advisers.

Studies have focused on issues such as:

• the impact of free internet provision in Kenyan schools
• the strength of demand for mobile digital financial services that cover utility bill payments
• the impacts of microfinance on women’s economic empowerment, economic well-being, farming techniques and productive asset accumulation
• the constraints to growth facing SMEs in Ethiopia and their implications for the country’s nascent private equity and venture capital industries

Find out more results from our studies from the EIB-GDN Programme:

• First wave
• Second wave
• Measuring impacts: The experience of the EIB-GDN experience
• Third wave