How transparent are development finance institutions?

As global crises mount—from the social and economic fallout of COVID-19 to the deepening climate crisis to food insecurity compounded by the Russian invasion of Ukraine—development finance institutions (DFIs) are being called upon to address these issues.  Resources increasingly are being funneled through DFIs but the ability to know what investments are being made and the impact of those investments is a challenge.   

Publish What You Fund (PWYF) has undertaken the DFI Transparency Initiative, a consultative, multi-stakeholder research and advocacy effort to advance the transparency of DFIs. Its goal is to improve the effectiveness and accountability of DFI investments. The culmination of this work will be the launch of a DFI Transparency Index that measures disclosure by 30 multilateral and bilateral DFI portfolios, both sovereign and non-sovereign. This inaugural edition of the DFI Transparency Index will allow stakeholders—for the first time—to compare the relative transparency of these institutions, as well as establish a credible baseline of performance against which future progress can be measured. 

On January 25, the Center for Sustainable Development at the Brookings Institution and Publish What You Fund co-hosted an event to discuss the inaugural edition of the DFI Transparency Index. The event began with a keynote presentation from Deputy Assistant Secretary for International Development Finance and Policy at the U.S. Treasury Margaret L. Kuhlow, and a presentation of the index by PWYF CEO Gary Forster. George Ingram, senior fellow at the Brookings Center for Sustainable Development, moderated a panel with representatives from public and private sectors to discuss the findings of the index. The discussion focused on measurement of development impact and mobilization as well as assurance of community disclosure for project-affected communities for higher-risk projects.

Online viewers submitted questions for speakers by emailing [email protected] or via Twitter by using #DFITransparency. 

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