Title page

Contents

Acknowledgements 3

Acronyms 5

Executive summary 6

1. Introduction 7

2. Targeted approaches towards supporting growth 9

3. Successful historic interventions to promote economic growth 13

3.1. One-stop border posts 14

3.2. Aid grants to support analysis and engagement around economic transformation (SET) 17

3.3. Aid grants for investment promotion in Nepal 21

3.4. (DFI) Equity to support companies, or a financial injection into a company (Gatsby) 22

3.5. Summary of the impacts of the four types of grants 24

4. Promising ways forward to support growth 26

4.1. Long list of low-cost interventions to support growth 26

4.2. Six potential low-cost growth interventions 28

5. The role of learning and adaptive management in growth support 30

6. Designing projects to support a growth strategy 32

7. Conclusions 35

References 36

Table 1. A typology of public actions to promote economic growth and transformation 12

Table 2. Summary impacts of four different types of grants 24

Table 3. Selected growth interventions 26

Figure 1. Models of economic growth 10

Figure 2. Pathways of impact of regional infrastructure (e.g. OSBPs) on growth and poverty reduction 15

Figure 3. Conceptualising job impacts of a hydropower project 23

Boxes

Box 1. One-stop border posts in East Africa: impact on transport costs 16

Box 2. Impact of the DEGRP grant to Macmillan, Rodrik and the University of Groningen 18