Resources

Our Approach to Development Impact is a strategic document that details our key development impact objectives and describes our strategic intent and approach for making impactful investments. Our Impact Management Framework is forthcoming in 2024.

The Operating Principles for Impact Management (the Principles) provide a reference point against which the impact management systems of funds and institutions may be assessed. As a signatory since April 2019, this Disclosure Statement confirms that FinDev Canada’s investments are managed in alignment with the Principles.

Authored by GAIL – the Global Alliance of Impact Lawyers – the Report leverages the expertise of over 40 lawyers from across 13 jurisdictions who have expertise in advising on blended finance structures, through a series of 8 blended finance working group meetings over the course of a year (2023 – 2024).

All blended finance projects require a legal platform. Legal structuring and legal instruments and techniques are essential to achieve the fundamental objective of combining the right mix of financing – public, philanthropic and private – for social and environmental outcomes.  This Report identifies and maps the legal and regulatory supports for and barriers to blended finance and shares lessons, learnings and legal case studies from across the world.

Through this Report, GAIL hopes to support the more effective use of blended finance and to enable the scaling of blended finance structures and instruments for positive social and environmental Impact.

Jaime Begara Breton from FinDev Canada's Legal Services team has contributed to this report by authoring a piece on the legal and regulatory challenges in structuring blended finance funds established in the EU, (a common market for these funds), and set up to provide loans to sub-borrowers. His contribution is significant as it highlights a new legal hurdle that will likely affect many of these type of funds going forward: new restrictions that impose a limit on the portion of the fund's capital structure that can be composed of debt.  Given that the capital structure of blended finance funds is typically complex, consisting of different layers of capital (debt, equity, guarantees, or grants) to accommodate both commercial and concessional capital, these new restrictions complicate structuring of blended finance funds set up in the EU. Jaime's contribution emphasizes the importance of seeking specialized legal advice when designing blended finance funds.

Interested in Gender Lens Investing? Our team participated in a course on gender and equity lens Investing for investors and practitioners driven to invest in an inclusive way. 

This paper (a joint collaboration between IDBInvest and FinDev Canada) explores the link between innovation and firm performance in several developing countries using data from Compete Caribbean’s Innovation, Firm Performance and Innovation firm-level survey (IFPG). In this context, innovation is broadly defined as the introduction of a new or significantly improved product or process. This study provides evidence that innovation is an important factor for driving firm performance (e.g. revenue, productivity and wages) and in turn private sector development. The findings suggest that the main obstacles to innovation among businesses include lack of human capital (e.g. skilled employees), and small markets. It concludes by offering recommendations on how Development Finance Institutions (DFIs) and Multi-lateral Banks can work to stimulating more innovation in developing markets.

Invest2Impact aimed to support women entrepreneurs in East Africa and to better understand their business growth and financing journeys. 

This training is developed for investment professionals and fund managers to expand their capabilities on gender-lens investing.

This document sets out FinDev Canada’s strategy to promote climate mitigation, adaptation and resilience through our investments and operations.

This policy establishes a set of overarching principles for FinDev Canada to integrate and promote climate action throughout its investments and operations. The operationalization and implementation of this policy will be the subject of FinDev Canada’s climate change strategy.

Fund Design: Building for the underserved African market with a gender lens.

Statement made at the Financing African Economies Summit on May 18, 2021

We partnered with UN Women to create a Gender Glossary. Based on UN Women’s extensive documentation and resources on gender, (2) the glossary was designed as a collective tool to foster conversations around gender and to provide a common vocabulary for gender-related issues. This resource provides a starting point to help people express themselves on gender issues, to offer a better understanding of issues and themes around gender, and to help harmonize the way we discuss gender.  

A tool to raise awareness about barriers to women's economic participation