IFU (Denmark)
- Score:
- 20.3
- Position:
- 17 / 21
Overview
The Investment Fund for Developing Countries (IFU), is a development finance institution owned by the Danish Government. It was established in 1967 as an independent government-owned fund offering advisory and risk capital to companies with Danish interest wishing to do business in emerging markets. IFU is fully owned by the Danish Government and it joined the European Development Finance Institutions Association (EDFI) in 1992.
Analysis
IFU came seventeenth from 21 non-sovereign DFIs assessed with a score of 20.3 out of 100. IFU received a penalty as, at the point of the second assessment, there were no projects disclosed from 2021 and the database had a last update date of 31 December 2020. IFU does not publish to the IATI Standard which had a negative effect on its overall performance.
IFU came third-last in the Core Information component, with 3.73 out of 20. Although it scored for thirteen out of the seventeen indicators, it dropped points for format for many indicators due to there not being a bulk download format file available and for not publishing to the IATI Standard. It was one of six non-sovereigns where a disclosure/access to information policy could not be identified. It was the only bilateral DFIs not to score for project description. However, it was one of three bilateral DFIs to score for status and one of two to get points for total investment cost. Significantly, it was the only non-sovereign DFI to pick up points for disbursement data.
IFU came ninth in the Impact Management component with a score of 8.13 out of 25. Importantly, it was one of only two non-sovereign DFIs to score for the results indicator, with targets and actual results. It was also one of three non-sovereign DFIs to get points for activity indicators/metrics. On the organisation level it picked up points for the impact measurement approach and evaluations indicators. However, it did not score for the sector/country strategies and additionality statement indicators.
IFU scored 7.67 out of 30 in the ESG and Accountability to Communities component. It scored 100% for its E&S and project-level grievance (PGM) community disclosure policies. The only other indicator IFU scored points for was E&S global disclosure policy. IFU did not score points for any project-level indicators in the component.
IFU came joint last in the Financial Information component, with 0.75 out of 15. It only scored points for the financial reports/statements indicator. Again, it did not score for any project-level indicators.
IFU did not score at all in the Financial Intermediary (FI) Sub-investments component, coming joint last with four other non-sovereign DFIs.
Recommendations
- IFU should ensure that it discloses all investments to its project database in a timely fashion.
- IFU should become an IATI publisher and disclose all investments to the IATI Standard.
- It should make its data available in a bulk download format to improve useability and accessibility.
- IFU should create a disclosure/access to information policy according to industry best practices and adhering to the attributes outlined in Publish What You Fund’s DFI Transparency Tool.
- IFU should disclose further Core Information data including unique identifier, description, objectives, sub-national location, sub-sector, description of client, client contact, date of activity disclosure, approval date, signature date, and last update date. It should consistently disclose the domicile of investments.
- It should disclose its impact measurement approach, approach to determining impact attribution, and sector/country strategies.
- IFU should disclose additionality statements and baseline results.
- It should disclose project-level ESG and Accountability to Communities indicators, including summary of E&S risks and E&S assessments/plans.
- It should develop an early disclosure policy covering, at a minimum, high risk projects and disclose investments in line with the policy.
- IFU should create an independent accountability mechanism (IAM), following best practice examples and incorporate disclosure requirements for an IAM into existing policies.
- It should provide assurance of community disclosure for investments when disclosure is required.
- For Financial Information indicators it should disclose repeat investment, currency of investment, concessionality, mobilisation, and instrument-specific details (share of equity, interest rate, and loan tenor). It should consistently disclose co-financing information.
- IFU should create a policy for the disclosure of FI sub-investments. It should also disclose all private equity fund sub-investments and qualifying FI (bank) sub-investments in line with the guidance in Publish What You Fund’s DFI Transparency Tool.