The Euro-Mediterranean Economists Association (EMEA) and the Euro-Mediterranean Guarantee Network (EMGN) organised the webinar “Guarantee Schemes in a Changing World: Adapting to New Realities and Emerging Expectations” on 9 June 2026.

The webinar brought together 38 participants, including EMGN members, guarantee institutions, development partners and regional stakeholders, for an exchange on the evolving role of credit guarantee schemes in supporting SMEs and strengthening financial and economic resilience across the Euro-Mediterranean and MENA region.

The session opened with remarks and moderation by Christine de Visser, Project Manager at EMEA and EMGN. Pietro Calice, Senior Financial Economist at the World Bank Group, presented key findings from the latest World Bank Global Survey of Guarantee Schemes, with a focus on regional insights and emerging trends affecting guarantee ecosystems. He emphasized that guarantee schemes should scale in line with the maturity of their financial markets, supported by broader financial market development, stronger governance, diversified funding, risk-transfer mechanisms, and robust systems to demonstrate additionality and development impact.

Nagla Bahr, CGC-Egypt Board Member, EMGN Executive Board Member and Lead Representative, and GNGI African Continental Coordinator, addressed current market challenges facing guarantee institutions in the region, which are operating in an increasingly uncertain environment and must be better positioned within financial systems, supported by tailored regulations, and equipped with more sophisticated risk-sharing mechanisms to continue fulfilling their development mandate.

Simon Erhart, Senior Advisor on Financial Instruments and Guarantees, and Sylvia Wuerfel, Senior Guarantee Specialist at KfW, together with Zuberoa Mainz, Regional Investment Lead for North Africa, Horn of Africa, Zambia and Malawi at IFC, shared perspectives on how international financial institutions are working with local guarantors to strengthen risk-sharing mechanisms and expand access to finance for SMEs. Their interventions underlined the growing interest of IFIs and DFIs in partnering with guarantee schemes to mobilize capital and increase financing flows to underserved sectors and businesses.

EMGN members also shared practical perspectives from the field. Adnan Naji, Director General of the Jordan Loan Guarantee Corporation (JLGC), Jordan; Homam A. Hashem, Chief Executive Officer of Kafalah, Saudi Arabia; and Omar Badir, Head of Strategy and Cooperation Department at Tamwilcom, Morocco, discussed the conditions needed to strengthen local guarantee schemes, including a strengthened regional network for shared capacity building, diversified and longer-term funding, adapted regulatory frameworks, sound risk management, impact measurement, digital transformation, and closer collaboration with IFIs and DFIs.

The webinar reaffirmed the importance of strengthening the sustainability, resilience, and impact of guarantee schemes across the Euro-Mediterranean and MENA regions. It also highlighted a shared understanding among guarantee institutions, IFIs, and DFIs of the challenges facing EMGN member countries and the steps needed to address them. These include strengthening regional networks with capacity building, enhancing cooperation with regulators, increasing collaboration with IFIs and DFIs, and supporting the development of local and regional financial markets to enable the expansion of guarantee institutions.