The International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group (WBG), is the largest global development institution focused exclusively on the private sector. IFC helps developing countries achieve sustainable growth by financing investment, mobilising capital in international financial markets, and providing advisory services to businesses and governments.
The basis for IFC’s strategy is threefold: (i) the broad recognition of the role of the private sector as a critical driver of economic growth, and creator of the majority of jobs, in developing countries; (ii) IFC’s unique offering to the private sector operating in those countries including through its global knowledge and reach, combination of Investment Services (IS), Advisory Services (AS) and the IFC Asset Management Company (AMC), role as part of the WBG, and combination of both development and financial goals; and (iii) the opportunity for the WBG to be transformational through collaborative approaches that support, leverage, and complement private sector activity.
The WBG goals are to eradicate extreme poverty and pursue shared prosperity, taking into account the need to promote environmentally sustainable development. In support of this, IFC’s five Strategic Focus Areas constitute the framework for prioritising its activities across IS, AS and AMC:
IFC also continues to place a strong emphasis on gender as a cross-cutting theme. Following the 2013 World Development Report (WDR) on Jobs and the IFC Jobs Study, IFC is also putting a special emphasis on jobs, which the majority of poor people consider their most likely pathway out of poverty.
While IFC will continue strategy implementation in all five Strategic Focus Areas, it will put more focus on certain geographies, sectors and themes in the near to medium term. These are:
Through its Access to Information Policy (AIP), the IFC seeks to provide accurate and timely information regarding its investment and advisory services activities to its clients, partners and stakeholders.
The World Bank Group’s core strategy (2013), is to end extreme poverty by reducing the percentage of people living on less than $1.25 a day to 3% by 2030 and promoting shared prosperity by fostering income growth for the bottom 40% of the population in every developing country. The is being monitored by the World Bank Group Corporate Scorecard, which provides an apex view of the results and performance indicators of the the three World Bank Group institutions, including the IFC – as compared against the IFC Development Goals.
Evaluation has been integral to IFC’s results measurement since 2005, when IFC first began working with external evaluators to generate useful lessons and produce impartial assessments of development effectiveness. By revealing the factors for success or failure, evaluations help IFC understand what we need to do more of—and less of—to achieve IFC’s mission. In 2011, we launched an evaluation strategy focused on maximising opportunities for learning. The strategy has four main objectives: (1) to credibly articulate IFC’s development impact; (2) to learn how to maximise the effectiveness of IFC interventions; (3) to provide useful business intelligence to clients and partners; and (4) to exchange knowledge with external actors. The evaluation strategy complements the work of the Independent Evaluation Group which reports directly to the Board of Directors and is charged with providing its own assessments and lessons of experience. IEG’s evaluations incorporate findings from IFC’s own monitoring and evaluations. IFC’s evaluation staff works closely with IEG to discuss work programs, share knowledge, and align efforts whenever possible.
