COFIDES has published its first Statement of Alignment with the Operating Principles for Impact Management, an initiative spearheaded by the International Finance Corporation (IFC) from the World Bank group.
In April 2019, COFIDES was one of the sixty signatories who endorsed this set of principles, which aim to provide greater transparency to impact investments.
The COFIDES portfolio which is aligned with the Operating Principles for Impact Management amounts to 991 million euros, as shown in the first Statement of Alignment sent by the Company to the IFC. The statement was audited as of the 31st of December, 2019, by COFIDES' Internal Monitoring department, after reviewing documentation and interviews with the Company's project managers.
The Chairman and CEO of COFIDES, José Luis Curbelo, pointed out that “in this first year, we sought to consistently measure the impact on development of COFIDES' operations in order to systematically evaluate and manage all the circumstances that could arise in projects over the course of their implementation, especially those that could show effects which are not entirely desired in accordance with the high standards of excellence to which we aspire. The year has shown that COFIDES has the technical capacity and operational structure necessary to align itself with best practices in impact management.”
“COFIDES' investments must have a positive impact and contribute to the achievement of the 2030 Agenda. This is why the Company adopted the aforementioned Principles which identify international best practices", he added. In this regard, he highlighted that “the Principles help us to harmonise the impact approach with other development finance institutions and to manage and measure the effect of our investment operations in a systematic and transparent manner.”
The statement also enabled COFIDES to round up all aspects of the Company's impact in a single document, combining elements which are dispersed among the funds it manages and supports.
OPERATIONAL PRINCIPLES FOR IMPACT MANAGEMENT
As well as COFIDES, more than 100 entities have currently signed up to this initiative, including bilateral and multilateral development finance institutions.
The nine Operating Principles set out the standards to be adhered to by the signatories in terms of impact management, establishing a clear distinction between "reporting" and "impact management". The term "management" implies that impact is part of the company's strategy and is incorporated into decision-making, and so it has to be measured in the most consistent manner possible.
ABOUT COFIDES
COFIDES is a state-owned company which has been offering financial support to Spanish companies investing abroad since 1988. COFIDES is accredited to the European Union (EU) to manage funds coming from the EU budget, allowing the structuring of transactions with a high impact on development. COFIDES is also accredited to the UN’s Green Climate Fund (GCF) and can therefore structure operations on climate change mitigation and adaptation. Moreover, COFIDES is the exclusive manager of FIEX and FONPYME funds on behalf of the Secretariat of State for Trade attached to the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Tourism and also supports AECID in managing FONPRODE funds. COFIDES’s shareholders include Banco Santander, Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria (BBVA), Banco Sabadell and CAF-Development Bank of Latin America.
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