Publications
Summary of publication
This document is an independent progress review of performance of the Enterprise Challenge Fund pilot program to advise how to improve it, and how and whether to scale it up in future.
The independent progress review of the Enterprise Challenge Fund pilot program recommends continued support for pro-poor private sector development in South East Asia and the Pacific Islands but that its nature should change. It categorises the current projects according to their scope for replication and impact on the poor, with four out of eleven rated as clear 'challenge fund' projects. It rates the fund as less than satisfactory on all quality criteria except relevance.
The report concludes that results would have been stronger with clear objectives and a strategy at the outset, and effective communication of these among managers and other stakeholders. The review recommends changes to improve the value of the remaining Enterprise Challenge Fund investments, and a new, more poverty-focussed approach in the future.