Business View Caribbean | Volume 8, Issue 9

16 BUSINESS VIEW CARIBBEAN VOLUME 8, ISSUE 9 TIN financial institutions to promote green financing, and supported export-oriented agribusinesses in the region. “IFC has been stepping up to offer innovative solutions to support sectors severely affected by the pandemic, with a focus on helping companies preserve jobs and ensuring that MSMEs can access financing,” said Georgina Baker, IFC Vice President for Latin America and the Caribbean, Europe and Central Asia. “We also continue to open new paths to greening the region’s financial system and promoting greater financial inclusion for women,” she added. Almost 40 percent of IFC’s own account investments in the last fiscal year were aimed at financing climate-smart solutions. IFC provided one of the first sustainability-linked loans to Corsan, a water and sanitation services provider in Brazil, to reduce water losses in the distribution system and boost energy efficiency in its operation. Additionally, around $1 billion were focused on promoting greater financial inclusion for women, representing 66 percent of IFC’s total commitments in this area during the last fiscal year. MIGA, the world’s largest political risk insurance provider, whose mandate is to help drive impactful foreign direct investment to developing countries, issued a little over $3.8 billion in new guarantees in Latin America and the Caribbean over the 15-month period. MIGA’s commitment to improving the lives of citizens in LAC, who have been especially hard hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, is strong; roughly half of all new MIGA guarantees in FY21 were issued in the LAC region. MIGA supported eight new projects in eight LAC countries during FY21; 98.6 % of these new issuances were through MIGA’s $6.5 billion COVID-19 Response Program. An example of MIGA’s efforts to deliver tangible development impact in the face of the pandemic is its first ever engagement in The Bahamas. MIGA issued guarantees on loans extended to The Bahamian government. These loans will be used to modernize two public hospitals and provide financing to micro, small and medium enterprises. “MIGA worked closely with governments, businesses, and financial institutions in LAC to deploy its guarantees and secure private foreign capital resources to complement efforts towards mitigating the social and economic impacts of the pandemic,” said MIGA Vice President and Chief Operating Officer S. Vijay lyer. “In addition to MIGA projects securing better health outcomes for citizens, FY21 projects in LAC contributed to expanding the credit available to small and medium enterprises, financing climate measures and building resilience.” World Bank Group Response to COVID-19 Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the World Bank Group has deployed over $157 billion to fight the health, economic, and social impacts of the pandemic, the fastest and largest crisis response in its history. The financing is helping more than 100 countries strengthen pandemic preparedness, protect the poor and jobs, and jump start a climate-friendly recovery.