Following the launch of our new Development Outcome Tracking System (DOTS) in 2005, IFC is now able to report on some results patterns and findings for our entire portfolio. This helps us answer some questions about our business: What ingredients help generate strong development results? How can we improve our performance? What are the impacts on our stakeholders?
Private sector development provides opportunities for many - Private sector investments provide new opportunities and impacts on stakeholders throughout the value chain (from production, sales, consumption) and beyond on the neighboring community, the government and others. These impacts can be positive or negative and vary by sector, each of which has a unique benefit profile. Learn more…
Are profits made at the expense of development impact? – IFC’s development results are closely tied to our projects’ financial performance. Financial success correlates strongly with overall development outcome and economic, environmental, and social performance and broader private sector development impacts.
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Does society benefit more or less than investors? - IFC only invests in projects that are expected to be profitable, but society as a whole must benefit as well for the project to be considered a worthwhile IFC investment. An analysis shows that projects financed by IFC and evaluated between 2004 and 2006 indeed have significant benefits to society: economic returns to society overall were over 50 percent higher than private returns to investors. Learn more…
Large projects bring significant benefits – IFC’s larger investments generally perform better than our smaller investments, and generate significant benefits. Management quality and corporate governance were important drivers of project success, and larger projects typically benefit from both. Learn more…
Repeat business is good business and good development – Repeat IFC investments with an existing client tend to perform better financially and have greater developmental impact than investments with new clients. The prospect of long-term partnership remains one of the most highly valued features by our clients as we support them through difficult market developments and help them expand into new products, services, and markets. IFC thus balances developing new client relations with deepening development results by working with existing ones. Learn more…
Private sector development and poverty reduction
Tracking development reach indicators helps us understand our impact on poverty and living standards better. For example, we now have information on the number of customers our clients connected to water, phones, or power. We have attempted to describe our contribution to the Millennium Development Goals on the basis of our current understanding, which we plan to deepen in future through more in-depth evaluations. Learn more…
Private and public investments
Sustainable and high economic growth is hard to achieve, and no country has accomplished it without considerable private investment. The public sector plays a crucial role in creating business environments that facilitate productive investments. But the size, and therefore the potential impacts of private capital, is beyond that of public funding and the quality of investment also matters. Generally, private investment plays a more crucial role in promoting sustainable economic growth than public funds. Learn more...
Is IFC making too much profit?
IFC’s profits have quadrupled in the past five years, leading many to ask whether IFC is making profit at the expense of development outcome. Is IFC making money because it shies away from risky, but potentially high development impact projects in countries where private capital is scarce? This note shows that, on the contrary, IFC’s profit is an indication of strong development results. Learn more... 
