Making effective use of grants and technical assistance to support financial institutions

Investments in financial institutions make up approximately one third of CDC’s portfolio. This research focuses on understanding the opportunities to use technical assistance and grants effectively within the financial sector, with the aim of facilitating inclusive and sustainable business practice change at scale.

The research seeks to answer two primary questions relevant to CDC's own financial sector technical assistance/grant programming and to other DFIs and development actors operating in the same space: 

1. What are relevant examples of technical assistance and grants being used to promote change within financial institutions? What type of support was provided, by whom, and what was the intended outcome?
2. What were the results? What explains the difference between success and failure? What are the relevant lessons for CDC and DFIs more broadly?