2020 CIPE Annual Report

The year 2020 was defined by the COVID-19 crisis. The Center for International Private Enterprise (CIPE) was well prepared to meet the challenges of the pandemic both at home and abroad. CIPE quickly went from a physical environment to a virtual, assisting its partners to meet the challenges of the crisis

In the field, CIPE continued running its programs and focusing on several crucial areas. CIPE’s on-the-ground activities are aimed at helping develop sustainable private sectors, maintaining viable market economies, and supporting democracy. From the early days of the COVID pandemic, CIPE was already looking toward a brighter global future. To explain our approach, CIPE co-edited an e-book with the Diplomatic Courier, Six Essential Themes for an Economic Recovery Roadmap. The publication focused on:

• Supply chain diversification.
• Combating corruption.
• Challenges to democracy.
• Economic challenges for women.
• Chamber and association response strategies to COVID.

Even amid COVID, CIPE continued its work in key areas. To help improve outcomes for women, CIPE’s Center for Women’s Economic Empowerment (CWEE) is collaborating with the American Bar Association Rule of Law Initiative, the George W. Bush Institute, and other international organizations to develop and support women’s programs around the globe. In 2020, CWEE worked with the Regional Network for Businesswomen’s Organizations (RNBWO) and other key initiatives to help unlock financing, education and security for women in Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, and Sri Lanka. To help entrepreneurs share their story, CIPE sponsored an essay competition, inviting women entrepreneurs from Eurasia to share their experiences as business owners during the COVID-19 pandemic. Those essay competition winners were announced in November.

CIPE also worked to close governance gaps that Corrosive Capital can and often does exploit, so that recipient countries can be more ready to embrace Constructive Capital opportunities and absorb funding with less risk to democracy, institutions, and sovereignty. With support from CIPE, partners in Bosnia and Herzegovina, North Macedonia, Montenegro, and Serbia were the countries in 2020 that released assessments and reports on the devastating impact of some provocative investments in recipient countries. These threats included secretive Huawei IT infrastructure work, environmentally dangerous copper mining operations, and debt-inducing highway construction. CIPE operates in some of the most challenging parts of the world. It is currently supporting more than 200 programs and grants in 81 countries.