FinDev Canada and COFIDES signed a Memorandum of Understanding to cooperate towards the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals through private sector investments.
The signature took place during the Annual General Meeting of the Association of bilateral European Development Finance Institutions (EDFI) in The Netherlands.
The development finance institutions (DFIs) committed to promote the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. Both are particularly focused on activities that advance SDG 5, gender equality; SDG 7, affordable and clean energies, SDG 8, decent work and economic growth; SDG 9, industry, innovation and infrastructure and SDG 13, climate action.
About the agreement, Paul Lamontagne, Managing Director of FinDev Canada, highlighted the importance of partnerships to achieve the SDGs by 2030. “The United Nations’ call is clear: we need to go from billions to trillions to achieve the sustainable development goals. We can only get there if we work together towards the same objective: to mobilize much needed private sector capital to developing country markets that desperately require these investments for positive change.”
The President and Chief Executive Officer of COFIDES, José Luis Curbelo, stated that “FinDev Canada and COFIDES share the same objective: to contribute to the economic growth and sustainability of developing countries through financial support to the private sector. We hope that this MoU will allow us to intensify mutual collaboration and to explore complementary areas of cooperation with FinDev Canada, a newly created institution with which we share strategic principles and values”.
In this connection, he announced that “COFIDES is studying the possibility of co-financing operations with FinDev Canada to jointly promote investment projects abroad, especially in Latin America and the Caribbean, including specific actions with a focus on gender.”
FinDev Canada and COFIDES hope to collaborate in the future within the framework of the ‘2X Challenge, financing for women’ initiative, that COFIDES expects to join in the near future.
FinDev Canada and COFIDES share a common focus on initiatives that have a positive impact on climate change mitigation and adaptation.
Both DFIs are among the first adopters of the Operating Principles for Impact Management, a series of guidelines launched by the International Finance Corporation (IFC) during this year’s World Bank Spring Meetings. The Principles aim to standardize best practices in impact investing.
About FinDev Canada
The Development Finance Institute Canada Inc., operating under the FinDev Canada brand, is a Canadian institution dedicated to providing financial services to the private sector in developing countries with the aim of combating poverty through economic growth by focusing on three main themes: economic development through job creation, women economic empowerment, and climate change mitigation. The Development Finance Institute Canada Inc. is a wholly owned subsidiary of Export Development Canada (EDC). Find out more about FinDev Canada here.
About COFIDES
COFIDES is a public-private company which has been offering financial support to Spanish companies investing abroad since 1988. It is accredited with the EU to manage Community budgets, allowing it to structure transactions with a high impact on development. It is also accredited with the UN’s Green Climate Fund and can structure operations on climate change mitigation and adaptation with the GCF. It 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 supports AECID in managing FONPRODE funds. Shareholders include Banco Santander, Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria (BBVA), Banco Sabadell and CAF-Development Bank of Latin America.