Consultations

An increasingly popular form of government intervention in credit markets to ease access to finance for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) is represented by credit guarantee schemes (CGSs). These are specialized institutions or programs providing third-party credit risk mitigation to lenders through the absorption of a portion of the losses on the loans made to SMEs in case of default.

CGSs have become a common feature of financial systems across the world. However, their expansion as a policy tool has triggered greater demand for evidence on their impact. This demand concerns in particular CGSs’ quality, efficiency and effectiveness. CGSs are established to improve access to finance for SMEs and in some cases to deliver other important results such as investment and jobs. Whether or not these results are actually achieved is a crucial public policy question yet one that is not often examined.

To provide guidance to CGS managers, policymakers and stakeholders on how to design and implement an impact evaluation of CGSs, the World Bank Group and the FIRST Initiative in partnership with a task force of experts representing international associations of CGSs around the world have developed a Toolkit.

The Toolkit, included in the consultative document, reviews a variety of existing impact evaluation techniques and proposes a selection process for an impact evaluation framework that is rigorous, credible, and at the same time practical, straightforward, and relatively inexpensive to implement.

The Task Force welcomes comments on all aspects of this consultative document and the proposed text.

Comments on the proposal should be uploaded by Friday, September 29, 2017.

All comments will be published on the website of the World Bank Group unless a respondent specifically requests confidential treatment.

Comments on the proposal should be uploaded by Friday, September 29, 2017.

All comments will be published here unless a respondent specifically requests confidential treatment