The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) in 2016 attracted a record level of donor funds amounting to €445 million, a more than 40 per cent increase on the previous year.
EBRD says donor grants are used to co-finance EBRD operations and related activities, such as policy reform and technical cooperation projects, aimed at enhancing the private sector’s sustainable growth in countries ranging from Morocco to Mongolia.
The European Union is the EBRD’s largest single donor, contributing around 50 per cent of donor funding received over the last five years in support of Bank activities, confirming its commitment as a crucial partner to the EBRD. Individual governments and donor agencies – including EBRD countries of operations such as Kazakhstan and Albania, as well as global funds such as the Climate Investment Funds, the Global Environment Facility and other World Bank managed financing facilities – also contributed significant grant support.
The EBRD and its donors share the commitments expressed in the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Agreement on climate action. Working together, donors and the EBRD play a decisive role in promoting well-functioning market economies, transparency, fair competition, modernization, inclusion and the sustainable use of resources. On average, around one-third of EBRD operations are supported by donor funds, with an emphasis on less-advanced regions.
Donor grants finance both investments and technical cooperation. This support has allowed the Bank to confidently take ambitious steps such as initiating the Green Economy Transition approach, the implementation of the first Gender Strategy, the involvement in the international refugee crisis response and the launch of the Green Cities Framework.
The ultimate beneficiaries of EBRD donors’ generosity are the millions of citizens who are enjoying better and greener municipal services, business owners and managers who have more access to finance and advice, industries and infrastructure that are enabled to use clean technology and regulators that are better equipped to push reforms for an improved business climate.
In addition, in 2016 the EBRD secured from the Green Climate Fund (GCF) last October up to US$ 378 million to support green investments – the Fund’s largest approval in 2016. As manager of multi-donor funds supporting activities of international financial institutions (IFIs), such as the Eastern Europe Energy Efficiency and Environment Partnership (E5P) Fund, the Western Balkans Investment Framework's donor fund and the Northern Dimension Environmental Partnership (NDEP), the EBRD helped raise the significant sum of €114 million in grant funding for EBRD and other IFI operations.
Donor funding will continue to boost the Bank’s work in all sectors and across the entire region. In particular, these funds will continue to be essential to invest in the green economy, infrastructure, small businesses and other initiatives such as good governance, economic inclusion and gender equality.
The EBRD is a multilateral bank committed to the development of market-oriented economies and the promotion of private and entrepreneurial initiative in more than 30 countries from Morocco to Mongolia and from Estonia to Egypt. The Bank is owned by 65 countries, the EU and the EIB. The EBRD’s strategic plan for the countries where it invests for the period 2016-18 has three priorities: strengthening economic resilience, addressing global challenges and supporting regional integration.
Tajikistan joined the EBRD on October 16, 1992. In Tajikistan, the Bank focuses on stabilizing and rebuilding trust in the banking sector, developing private enterprises and agribusiness, improving the availability, reliability and quality of municipal services and improving the quality of energy supply, regulation and energy efficiency.
