Multilateral/Bilateral Agencies

Bretton Woods Project
Bretton Woods Project was established by a network of United Kingdom NGOs to monitor the World Bank and IMF. The Project's reports and bi-monthly bulletin aim to clarify current issues and provide links to campaigners and researchers worldwide. The site's Briefings and Reports section contains discussion of the private sector and privatization.

COFACE
This French firm is the world leader in export credit insurance, France's leading source of credit information and the manager of French government export guarantees.

Export Credits Guarantee Department (ECGD)
The UK's official export credit agency. ECGD is a separate Government Department reporting to the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, deriving its powers from the 1991 Export and Investment Guarantees Act. ECGD works with exporters, project sponsors, banks and buyers to help UK exporters compete effectively in overseas markets where the private sector may be unable to help. The agency arranges Finance Facilities and Credit Insurance for contracts ranging from around £20,000 up to hundreds of millions of pounds. There is special help for smaller exporters. ECGD also provides Overseas Investment Insurance for UK-based companies investing overseas.

Export Development Corporation (EDC)
A Canadian financial institution devoted exclusively to providing trade finance services to support Canadian exporters and investors in some 200 markets, 130 of which are in developing markets. Developing markets offer a wealth of opportunity for Canadian exporters and investors, but also involve greater risk. EDC helps them assess the long-term potential and manage the increased complexity and risk. In 2000, Canadian business concluded $45.4 billion in export and domestic sales and investments in markets using EDC trade financing services, up 13 per cent over the previous year.

HERMES
HERMES is the largest credit insurer in Germany with a market share of around 50% and has a world-wide network of subsidiaries and associated companies. Together with HERMES' French partner, Groupe EULER, the Allianz credit insurance grouping has a share of the world-wide credit insurance market amounting to approx. 40% with representations, subsidiaries and joint ventures in all important international credit insurance markets. They are the manager of German government export guarantees.

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)
The OECD groups 30 member countries in an organization that, most importantly, provides governments a setting in which to discuss, develop and perfect economic and social policy. They compare experiences, seek answers to common problems and work to co-ordinate domestic and international policies that increasingly in today's globalized world must form a web of even practice across nations. Among several different areas, the OECD Website provides information on transport, regulatory issues, and public finance.

United Nations Capital Development Fund
UNCDF works to reduce poverty in Least Developed Countries through a variety of innovative approaches in both local governance and microfinance initiatives.

United Nations Development Programme
The UNDP is the United Nations' principal provider of development advice, advocacy and grant support. Its core programmes focus on the countries that are home to 90 percent of the world's extremely poor people. UNDP's commitment to a universal presence has proven especially useful in post-conflict situations, and with states that have been otherwise isolated from the international community.

The U.S. Overseas Private Investment Corporation
The Overseas Private Investment Corporation's political risk insurance and loans help U.S. businesses of all sizes invest and compete in emerging markets and developing nations worldwide. OPIC, a U.S. government agency, assists U.S. private investment overseas because it is in America's economic and strategic interest.