2 TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE IN THE EUROPEAN FINANCIAL ARCHITECTURE
TA IN THEORY
Technical assistance/cooperation is defined by the OECD as “the provision of resources aimed at the
transfer of technical and managerial skills or of technology” for the purpose of building up general
national capacity or for the purpose of implementing specific investment projects.
2
In the context of
DFI investments, it serves four core purposes:
1. To develop a pipeline of projects, through the financing of feasibility studies and market devel-
opment research to identify and overcome obstacles to investments.
2. To de-risk investments, by financing project preparation and management, staff training, and
legal and contracting fees, and improving financial controls or improving governance systems of
private companies
3
to make business ideas commercially viable and attract investors.
3. To bolster impact by supporting clients to improve standards, particularly environmental, social
and governance (ESG) performances.
4. To facilitate an enabling business environment and create market opportunities by supporting
policy reforms in areas such as labour laws, fiscal regimes, competition policy and market reg-
ulation.
The case for TA derives from its crucial role in mitigating risks and increasing investors’ confidence.
The United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNDCF) emphasises the importance of TA in blended
finance for the so-called missing middle—small and medium enterprises (SMEs)—which are “too large
for microfinance, but too small or risky to access […] capital from conventional debt and equity inves-
tors,” and in particular, in least developed countries (LDCs) (OECD/UNCDF, 2019).
TA IN NUMBERS
TA is used at different stages of the investment cycle. At the pre-investment stage, it is used to develop
a pipeline of projects or to facilitate the conditions for a business enabling environment. At the invest-
ment stage, it is used to subsidise the investment. Post-investment, it is used to bolster the impact of
the project. According to Convergence’s historical database on blended finance, out of 136 transactions
with a TA component, a majority (53 percent) of TA was targeted at post-investment interventions and
less than a third (28 percent) at upstream activities to develop a pipeline of bankable projects (see
Figure 1).
4
2 https://stats.oecd.org/glossary/detail.asp?ID=6022
3 https://www.bridgesfundmanagement.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/Shifting-the-Lens-A-De-risking-Toolkit-for-Im-
pact-Investment.pdf
4 https://assets.ctfassets.net/4cgqlwde6qy0/3RZClckJliqSyQVy5zkxaT/d3154bf0a55836bd3ec26fb07258a913/Technical_Assis-
tance_Brief_vFinal.pdf