Private sector development (PSD) and Development Finance, including Blending and Blended Finance, are widely recognized by the international community as engines of sustainable and inclusive economic growth. Much efforts are also spent on developing and testing innovative finance instruments.

ADE has acquired strong experience in these fields. ADE is for instance Consortium Leader for the EU Framework Contract on Innovative Financing for Development (DG DEVCO FWC SIEA 2018 Lot 6).

Overall, ADE has a track record services in PSD and Development Finance of the following types:

• Knowledge Sharing events
• Strategic Evaluation
• Project Monitoring and Evaluation
• Programming and Formulation
• Technical Assistance

Examples of ADE contributions to Knowledge Sharing events in the fields of PSD and Development Finance:

• Trainings on Blending to EU Headquarters and Delegation staff
• Contribution to the UNCDF-OECD report “Blended Finance in the Least Developed Countries” (2018, www.uncdf.org/bfldcs/home)
• Challenges of measuring blended finance in LDCs
• OECD Knowledge Exchanges on Blended Finance
• OECD Senior Advisory Group on Blended Finance
• European Evaluation Society
• Seminars on results of Strategic Evaluations

Examples of Strategic Evaluations in the fields of PSD and Development Finance:

• Final Evaluation of the Support to the Facility for Euro-Mediterranean Investment Partnership - FEMIP (2019)
• End-term evaluation of the ACP Investment Facility managed by the EIB (2019)
• Evaluation of the Belgian cooperation's support to the private sector - PSD and PS4D (2018)
• Evaluation of the Infrastructure Development Fundmanaged by FMO, the Dutch Development Bank (2018)
• Evaluation of African Development Bank support to Agricultural Value Chains (2018)
• Evaluation of Blending, covering the seven regional EU investment facilities (ITF, NIF,LAIF,CIF,IFCA, AIF, IFP) (2017)
• Evaluation of EU Support to Private Sector Development in Third Countries (2013)
• Final Evaluation of the EU/ACP Microfinance Programme (2012)
• Mid-term evaluation of the ACP Investment Facility managed by the EIB
• Evaluation of the EU-ACP Centre for the Development of Enterprise(2011)
• Evaluation of the EU Intellectual Property Rights Enforcement Strategy in Third Countries (2010)
• Evaluation of EU aid delivery through Development Banks (WB, ADb, AsDB) and EIB (2008)
• Evaluation of support to private sector development in a series of wider country-level evaluations, notably for the European Union and African Development Bank

Most of these evaluation reports can be downloaded on ADE's website ( www.ade.eu) or on clients' website. ADE can also provide them upon request.

These evaluations covered a wide array of fields, including for instance:

• Institutional & regulatory framework relating to the business environment
• Financial inclusion / Access to finance by enterprises at all levels, incl. MSMEs, and access to foreign direct investment (FDI)
• Enterprise competitiveness, incl. capacity building, and access to technology and new markets
• Investment promotion, incl. support to intermediary organisations or business-to-business investment meetings
• Job creation

These studies covered a range of (concessional) financial instruments: loans, equity, quasi-equity, mezzanine capital, other risk capital instruments, factoring, leasing, guarantees, other innovative instruments, etc.; and grants (notably as cash, interest rate subsidies or technical assistance).