How donors can support growth and investment

In this vast area of research, we focus on three issues.

1. Mapping donor instruments onto investment and growth in developing countries. We are currently assessing private sector development strategies of donors in Africa, most recently in the context of Malawi. We also examine developed countries’ trade policies, for example in the area of services.
2. Our work on Aid for Trade examines how it help countries to trade and grow, and proposes ways in which growth issues can get a higher profile in development strategies. Our programme has analysed past flows of aid for trade and proposed potential solutions for the Aid for Trade architecture. It has also developed a robust methodology to quantify aid for trade, and test its impact on trade, growth and investment climate indicators. We also aim to quantify the relative trade-related needs of developing countries empirical by using growth modelling and trade unit cost analyses.
3. The effectiveness of development finance institutions (DFI), looking at the role of DFI subsidies in infrastructure and the role of bilateral development finance institutions in the DFI architecture, but will continue the work on how DFIs contribute to growth.