Liang Shiqi, a 2022 double master's student at the China-EU School of Law at the China University of Political Science and Law, was funded by the China Scholarship Council and interned at the International Finance Corporation (IFC) of the World Bank Group in Washington, D.C. in the United States from May to August 2024.
1. Beginning of the Journey
The starting point of this experience was that I walked back to the Chinese customs alone with two heavy suitcases, and after finally connecting to the domestic Internet, I saw the selection notice for the IFC internship program forwarded by the tutor in the Wechat group. At that time, I had just completed a six-month study in Germany. In addition to professional knowledge and English proficiency, the biggest gain from this experience was the spiritual transformation - it prompted me to cultivate the ability to solve problems and build an independent self-cognition system. I believe that I have enough courage and ability to embark on another internship on another continent again. At the same time, based on my personal interest in international investment law, I chose a related thesis topic and a foreign thesis supervisor, and prepared graduation thesis on both European law and Chinese law, which helped deepened my understanding of the World Bank Group. However, this was not the first time I saw relevant information about the IFC. Thanks to the excellent alumni of the China-EU School of Law, I met a senior who had interned at the IFC Beijing office before I enrolled. She once told me about this internship and encouraged me to try more if I had the chance, which would provide me with more international perspectives. To get closer to international investment and international organizations, I decided to sign up for the program.
The day of interview soon arrived, and I rushed back to Beijing from home without rest. After the second round of interview, I was unfortunately infected with influenza. Fortunately, I didn't need to meet anyone for the third round of written test, so I didn't have to worry about infection. While doing the test questions with a fever, I asked myself again and again: "Why do I participate in this program?" I was afraid that I made a decision without careful considerations, or I would back down at the last minute. However, when I looked at the written test questions again, the words revealed that the IFC hopes to leverage the ambitious goal of economic development by funding private entities in developing countries. "Reduce poverty and improve lives" is not a slogan, but a real action. There are a group of excellent people insisting on doing this in many corners of the earth. I put a cold towel on my forehead again to clam down, and I made up my mind. When I finished typing the last word and handed in the paper, I collapsed on the chair in the dorm, looking back at the answer sheet, but my mind had flown to the other side of the earth.
Fortunately, three days later I received an email saying I had passed the interview. Subsequently, with the help of teachers and former interns, I applied for funding from the China Scholarship Council, got a visa, and purchased insurance. Just like when I set off for Germany half a year ago, I once again walked through the Chinese customs alone, dragging two heavy suitcases, and once again watching the plane getting farther and farther away from the ground outside the window, but the feeling of uneasiness did not come again. Studying in Germany for half a year help me maintain self-reflection and growth. This time, I believe that I will deal with various challenges more calmly and gain unique growth on the other side of the ocean.
(IFC)
2. Introduction of the IFC
The World Bank Group has five organizations: the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), the International Development Association (IDA), the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA) and the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID). The IFC is an international financial institution that offers investment, advisory, and asset-management services to encourage private-sector development in less developed countries. Its headquarter is located in Washington, D.C. and it has regional offices in many member countries.
(World Bank)
IFC is committed to providing diversified financial support to the private entities in developing countries and emerging markets. The rationale is that healthy economic growth is the key to poverty reduction, which should be rooted in entrepreneurship and successful private investment development, and a favorable business environment is essential for the latter to prosper and contribute to the improvement of people's living standards. Therefore, IFC is committed to providing innovative solutions that can be implemented on a large scale to maximize its impact. At the same time, through knowledge and research, IFC helps countries make wise decisions that can have a significant impact. Its main purpose is to cooperate with the World Bank Group's business activities, provide loans or investments without government guarantees to key private entities in member countries, especially developing countries, and encourage international private capital to flow to developing countries to promote the growth of private entities in these countries and promote their economic development.
(IFC)
On the first day of internship, our interviewer Jan briefly introduced the internal structure of the IFC to us. The highest authority of the IFC is the Board of Governors. Generally, each member country has an executive director responsible for daily affairs. There are various departments under it, among which the Development Impact Measurement (CDI) is the department where Jan is currently working and is also the department where we interned. There are sub-departments under CDI, such as the Infrastructure, Manufacture, Finance, and Disruptive Technology and so on.
(Organizational Chart of IFC)
3. Work and Insights
My work can be roughly divided into three parts: (1) investment impact assessment; (2) assisting in due diligence; (3) research for the energy report. Before I introduce my work in detail, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my supervisor Ayo. He believes in my work ability and has given me many valuable opportunities, making me exposed a variety of work tasks and deeply participate in projects, so my ability has improved rapidly. Although I raised many questions during the process, he explained them to me in patience and often praised my courage to ask questions and try new things. It is precisely because of his kind guidance and encouragement that I was able to enter this unfamiliar field so quickly and enjoy exploring it.
(with my supervisor Ayo)
(1) Investment Impact Assessment
IFC's work can be mainly divided into investment and advisory projects. In the investment part, for all new investment projects, IFC needs to firstly determine the expected effects of sustainable development; for mature projects, IFC needs to evaluate the quality of the development benefits achieved. The former is called pre-investment evaluation, and the latter is called post-investment evaluation.
In its specific work, IFC currently uses the Anticipated Impact Measurement and Monitoring (AIMM) system to score the development impact of all its investment projects, and has recently begun to rate advisory projects. The AIMM system evaluates the development impact of projects based on two dimensions: (1) Project Outcome: refers to the direct impact of the project on stakeholders (including employees, customers, suppliers and communities); direct, indirect and induced impacts on the economy and society as a whole; and impact on the environment; (2) Market Creation: refers to the potential of the project to produce systemic, sector-wide changes to enhance market competitiveness, resilience, integration, inclusiveness and sustainability. Based on the different characteristics of various sectors, IFC has developed more than twenty guide papers to evaluate projects in all relevant sectors. These sector frameworks are step-by-step guides for evaluating IFC investment projects, providing an analytical framework to facilitate assessment of the expected results of the project and its contribution to market creation. The sector framework mainly helps to evaluate the expected effects by assigning ratings in four areas: (1) Gap: How big is the problem IFC seeks to solve? (2) Intensity: How strong is the project's contribution to the solution? (3) Impact potential: What is the potential to produce the desired effect based on the problem and contribution? (4) Likelihood: How likely is the project to produce the desired effect? At the same time, certain social parameters are also embedded in the framework of cross-cutting themes, including environment, climate, economic inclusion, community, and gender.
During the internship, part of my work was to find parameters related to investment projects, and to evaluate whether the project met the requirements by the AIMM system. Firstly, I needed to consult the official websites of the International Energy Agency (IEA), the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), the United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD), etc., and then use databases such as EMIS to conduct extensive market research to understand the investment background of the project, including the development of the power market in different countries, energy structure, urban-rural differences, etc. By comparing multiple indicators, a rating was produce to determine the project’s score in the AIMM system, helping the economists to make conclusions in a more scientific manner.
(2) Assisting in Due Diligence
During the investment evaluation process, due diligence on the target company is also required. Due diligence includes but is not limited to whether the target company’s expected outcomes are reasonable, whether there are scandals, whether there are risks in past cash flows and so on. At the same time, for different projects, potential risks need to be considered based on the different sectors. However, this type of due diligence is different from that of law firm. The former focuses more on commercial risks, while the latter is based on legal risks. The legal department within the IFC will also conduct due diligence on legal risks of the investment project.
(3) Research for the Energy Report
The World Bank Group's current work in the energy sector aims to help client countries secure affordable, reliable and sustainable energy supplies. The World Bank Group attaches great importance to energy policy and regularly publishes sector reports, which are written by economists within the World Bank Group.
The current energy development is based on Sustainable Development Goal 7 (SDG 7), which is to ensure that everyone has access to affordable, reliable and sustainable modern energy. This is key to the development of agriculture, commerce, communications, education, health care and transportation. For decades, fossil fuels such as coal, oil or natural gas have been the main source of electricity production. But burning carbon fuels produces a lot of greenhouse gases, leading to climate change and causing harmful effects on human well-being and the environment. In addition, global electricity consumption is growing rapidly. Without a stable supply of electricity, countries will not be able to power their economic development. The energy report mainly put forward multi-angle and all-round policy recommendations.
4. Other experiences
In addition to my daily work, I also gained other experiences: (1) attending various lectures; and (2) understanding diverse cultures.
(1) Attend various lectures
As an intern at the World Bank Group, I can use my badge to enter the various parts of the World Bank Group, and I can also walk into the International Monetary Fund (IMF), so I can freely participate in various activities held by these international organizations. In addition, the IFC also often holds various knowledge sharing activities, inviting famous scholars, industry experts, etc. to share the latest research results. Based on this convenient condition, I can explore the latest developments of the international organizations in my free time. Through these activities, I can not only understand the latest trends in world development, but also meet people from different countries and regions around the world and establish connections with them.
I also attended the 11th World Bank Group Youth Summit and the 2024 World Bank Annual Meeting on Development Economics and so one. This year's Youth Summit, themed "Digital Transformation", engages young people in addressing the most pressing issues facing our generation. Digital tools not only help us address global challenges and unexpected shocks, but can also open up new ways to create jobs, expand markets, and improve efficiency. However, the digital divide has hindered progress and limited opportunities, with 2.6 billion people offline. The Youth Summit provides a platform to showcase these historically marginalized voices, including women in technology, youth affected by fragility, conflict, and violence, and rural youth. The IFC is also actively providing more opportunities for youth development, allowing young people from all over the world to bravely put forward their own ideas through business proposal competitions. During the competition, I also saw more Chinese youths, who used what they learned to build a prototype of a sustainable business project and calmly responded to the tricky questions of economists, leaving a deep impression on the audience.
(11th World Bank Youth Summit)
(2) Understanding diverse cultures
When I was checking in on the first day of my internship, a man in charge of system management said to me in Chinese: "Hello!" I was a little bit shocked and replied "Hello" in Chinese and asked him how he knew I was Chinese. He said he was learning Chinese, and then pointed to a photo on the blackboard next to him and said that his son had a Chinese name "Yan Shengming". I said it was a good name, "Ming" represents wisdom. He said proudly, "yes, my son is great". And this is just the tip of the World Bank Group's high degree of internationalization.
In my daily work, I often come into contact with people from all over the world. They may speak different languages and have different backgrounds, but they all shine in their own fields and are happy to convey goodwill. In a diverse working environment, I continue to break the conventional common sense, gradually understand diverse cultures, and continuously broaden my international perspectives.
(Dinner with Fellow Interns)
5. End of the Journey
Four months is a really short period in life, but it is bright enough to shine my whole life. This experience is particularly valuable to dispel the confusion, anxiety and hesitation that linger on me at the age of 24. During this journey, I would like to thank the program teachers for their overall arrangements, my mentor for encouraging me to go far, the college and school for their support, and all the people who helped me in the process. I hope that the gains from this internship will make me more courageous to take next steps.
Article and Photos: Liang Shiqi
Reviewed by Ayooluwa Olusola Adewole
Editor: MA Anna
