Added Impact of Investments
COFIDES foster the establishment of partnerships with the private sector to finance projects that generate lasting beneficial effects on host countries. The company has acquired considerable experience in measuring the impact of the projects it finances, implementing in-house policies and action, participating in international initiatives and working with other global actors to progress towards the achievement of the UN’s sustainable development goals.
In 2021 COFIDES continued to work in areas introduced in preceding years while undertaking new initiatives. Particularly prominent in that regard was the design of the programme for driving impact investment included under the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan for the Spanish economy and financed with allocations from the Next Generation EU fund. The two areas for action defined are sustainability-linked funding and technical assistance. Implementation is envisaged starting in 2022, as soon as COFIDES receives the EU EUR 1.7 million endowment. The programme primarily aims to favour project social and environmental management to steer production and management premises toward more sustainable models.
The numbers associated with portfolio projects included:
As proof of COFIDES’s commitment to Agenda 2030, for the third year running the company included a series of material sustainability targets among our corporate objectives.
COFIDES also issued our second public statement on investments and processes aligned with the Operating Principles for Impact Management. The content of that statement, the second since COFIDES adhered to this International Finance Corporation initiative in 2019, was subjected to an internal audit.
Contribution to creating and maintaining:
COFIDES continued to participate in an EDFI task force that supervises the Harmonisation Initiative on Responsible Financing and Impact Measurement, initially designed to harmonise investment impact measurement. The TF has since acquired the additional task of aligning the commitments to tackle climate change adopted by European sister institutions. COFIDES’s new Strategic Plan 2022-2024 includes a commitment to devote 30 % of project formalisation volumes to climate action and environmental sustainability.
Investment impact on gender equality
COFIDES deem integration of the gender dimension in project analysis to be an imperative. Private sector investment can contribute to advances in equality and inclusive market creation while enhancing business performance.
COFIDES’s contribution to SDGs:
The company’s gender policy and associated operating procedure, aligned with international standards and applicable to all the financial instruments managed by COFIDES or that receive company technical support, were revised in 2021. The primary objectives include prevention or mitigation of adverse impacts on women, along with their empowerment through activities and aims that raise accessibility to resources and opportunities.
The most prominent new items include the use of 2X Challenge criteria to gather information on gender equality and women’s empowerment in company-supported projects. The criteria to determine whether a project qualifies for 2X status include women’s presence as founders, owners, members of the Board of Directors, senior managers or employees and whether there are initiatives to support female workers and products and services that favour women.
Further to 2X criteria, 31 % of the Spanish sponsors of the projects formalised in 2021 had a significant number of women on their Boards of Directors. Similarly, women were prominent among senior managers in 29 % of the projects and as employees in 35 %, whilst support was available in 71 %, most notably protocols to deal with harassment, work-life conciliation measures, access to non-traditional positions and pay gap analysis.