Report Launch on "Time for a Third Wave of Enterprise Funds"
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Enterprise funds are an innovative U.S. foreign policy tool created in the early 1990s that use U.S. government funding to stimulate economic development by investing in the private sectors of developing countries. Unlike grants or loans directed to foreign governments, enterprise funds use U.S. government funding to invest in private equity and credit in emerging markets. This paper makes a case for launching a third wave of enterprise funds. It provides an overview of the enterprise fund model and its achievements, offers suggestions for improvements, and recommends six countries and one region in which current economic and political conditions are ripe for the launch of new enterprise funds. Using a set of criteria, we identify two categories of countries as candidates for a new round of enterprise funds. Ultimately, the choice for the next round of enterprise funds will follow a political decisionmaking process. The objective of this paper is to inform policymakers on the merits of enterprise funds as a strategy for sustainable economic development and to offer a select list of countries of geostrategic importance to the United States where enterprise funds could be established in the immediate future.
Please join us for a discussion with Jim Harmon, Agnes Dasewicz, Bert van der Vaart, and John Simon on how we can leverage enterprise funds to supplement existing development tools.
This event is made possible by general support to CSIS.
