• Independent Report commissioned by UK Export Finance and prepared by Paul Mudde, Henri d’Ambrieres and Arnaud Dornel

    Social infrastructure projects, especially in Emerging Markets and Developing Economies (EMDEs), face unique financing challenges—including high upfront costs, long payback periods and limited private sector engagement—resulting in critical underfunding of essential investments. Alongside development finance, officially supported export credits could play a crucial role in bridging these gaps to support sustainable infrastructure growth.  
     
    This report, commissioned by UKEF, draws on independent research and stakeholder feedback to analyse current regulations, challenges, and potential amendments to the OECD Arrangement. It explores the competitive landscape shaped by export credit and tied aid programs from non-OECD countries, the rise of untied financing and guarantee programs from both OECD and non-OECD countries, and opportunities for better alignment among various forms of official finance, including export credits, multilateral and bilateral development finance, and Official Development Assistance (ODA).  Given these and other developments it is recommended  to enhance the role of OECD export credits in social infrastructure development, including: (1) permanently increasing maximum ECA support to 95% of the export value for sovereign borrowers in EMDEs that are classified in OECD risk categories 5-7, (2) expanding local costs support to 100% of the export value for projects in these countries, (3) extending repayment periods for qualifying projects, and (4) introducing a Social Investment Sector Understanding with tailored terms and conditions to complement the existing Climate Change Sector Understanding (CCSU). These proposals are aligned with existing social – and green finance frameworks of the Loan Market Association and the International Capital Market Association. They offer OECD Participants and export credit stakeholders actionable pathways to improve social infrastructure financing worldwide and will help to maintain the relevance of officially supported export credits of the Arrangement.