Work on the second DFI Transparency Index is underway, in preparation for launch in July 2025. The Index ranks the transparency of the world’s leading development finance institutions (DFIs) and encourages improvement. The 2023 DFI Transparency Index found that overall, DFIs (especially non-sovereign operations) were not transparent enough and were not providing evidence of impact, data regarding mobilisation, or proof of accountability to communities. But it did highlight some improvements in disclosure from leading DFIs.

In 2024 we conducted a methodology review to improve the rigour of the DFI Transparency Index, while being careful to maintain a degree of comparability between the 2023 and 2025 editions. We updated the methodology following an in-depth internal review of the Index, in addition to consideration of feedback from stakeholders including civil society, the private sector, and DFIs. We also held three virtual consultation sessions with stakeholders and received written feedback.

Methodology updates

We have set out the key changes below. Full details can be seen in the methodology paper.

1. Introduction of climate finance indicators

DFIs play a critical role in climate finance; Climate Policy Initiative estimates that all DFIs together provided 57% of all public climate finance for 2021-2022. As such, transparency around the measurement and supply of climate finance from DFIs is important. Stakeholders need to know how DFIs calculate their climate finance contributions, and how much climate finance is being delivered.

We have included two new indicators on the transparency of climate finance in the 2025 DFI Transparency Index. These focus on whether the DFI publishes its methodology for calculating climate finance, and the degree to which a DFI discloses the amount and nature of climate finance within an investment.

2. Change to private capital mobilisation indicator

We have streamlined the mobilisation indicator to align it more closely to the business models of DFIs and the data priorities of stakeholders. In line with learning from our mobilisation transparency project, this indicator no longer includes DFI finance mobilisation. DFIs do not typically report on DFI finance mobilised and it is not a priority in the same manner as private capital mobilisation.

3. Change to sampling approach to capture recent changes in DFI disclosure practices

to reward and incentivise transparency improvements, we will sample DFI disclosures from one year before the assessment rather than two years. This is to make sure we capture instances where a DFI has changed disclosure practices between the 2023 Index and the 2025 Index, and recognises that backdating changes in disclosure practices is difficult for DFIs.

4. Introduction of survey on data sources and policy questions

To improve the rigour of our processes, we are introducing an optional survey that we will send to all assessed DFIs, focusing on identifying data sources and policy-based questions.

5. Combining of three assurance of disclosure indicators

The 2023 Index found low transparency across the three indicators that measure the assurance of disclosure of environmental and social aspects of a project, the presence of an independent accountability mechanism and a project grievance mechanism. However, where disclosure was identified, it typically covered each indicator, making many of the survey questions repetitive or redundant. We have therefore restructured and streamlined this into one indicator, but maintained the weighting on the three aspects.

6. Change to instrument-specific disclosure indicator

For the 2023 Index, we assessed the transparency of financial information related to specific instruments in both our sovereign and non-sovereign assessments. We have updated this indicator to better reflect DFI business models and concerns around commercial confidentiality. For our non-sovereign assessment, we have removed the survey question regarding loan interest rates, as feedback from a range of stakeholders indicated that interest rates on private sector loans can legitimately be considered to be commercially confidential. As sovereign operations do not typically involve equity investments, we changed our sovereign assessment to focus on detailed pricing of loans to sovereign borrowers. The length of guarantees was not considered to be especially relevant by stakeholders, and so this question has been removed from both assessments.

Timeline for the 2025 DFI Transparency Index

Work on the 2025 Index is scheduled as follows:

October 2024 Database Building – First Round

We will extract data from DFI investment lists and databases to identify investments from 1st October 2023 to 30th September 2024. We will select our samples at random from this list.

November to December 2024 Data Collection and Analysis – First Round

We will assess DFIs’ organisation and project-level disclosure from the first sample of fifteen projects. This round of analysis will not contribute to the final score of DFIs in the index; it is intended to give DFIs an indication of their performance and to identify areas for improvement.

January to February 2025 DFI Review

We will send first round scores directly to DFIs in January to give them an opportunity to understand our assessment of their performance and provide feedback on our findings. This will also provide time for DFIs to make improvements to their disclosure in line with our initial assessment. DFI feedback will be considered prior to the second round of data collection and analysis.

February 2025 Database Building – Second Round

We will extract data from DFI investment lists and databases to identify investments from 1st February 2024 to 31st January 2025. We will select our samples at random from this list.

March to April 2025 Data Collection and Analysis – Second Round

We will assess DFIs’ organisation and project level disclosure based on the second sample of fifteen projects. This round of analysis will be the only round that contributes to index scores.

May to June 2025 Report Production

We will rank the DFIs included in the Index according to their performance, and present results in a public report alongside detailed analysis of the assessments.

June/July 2025 Launch of report

We will launch the Index report at a public event in June or July 2025.