In the last few years, IFC has prioritized an approach to creating bankable private sector infrastructure opportunities that IFC calls “Scaling”—focusing not on single asset development, but on a holistic approach that creates a pipeline of infrastructure projects.
The essence of the Scaling approach is to develop a robust public-private partnership (PPP) model for a single deal and then replicate it. This spreads costs, enhances impact, and encourages programmatic, competitive tendering, with faster delivery and lower prices—genuinely creating new markets.
In some countries, this approach involved working with governments to design a process. In others, IFC has worked with investors and bankers, corralling views and facilitating dialogue. In each case, the ideas at the heart of Scaling—focusing on aggregation and investing upstream to achieve credibility downstream—were adapted to specific country circumstances. In all cases, the Scaling effort in process design and organization had a meaningful and long-lasting impact.
Here IFC considers one of these experiences—Scaling Solar—in more detail. This case study accompanies four other case studies and an Executive Summary, and provides insights and key takeaways that are directly applicable to other countries.