The DFI Transparency Index  assesses both sovereign and non-sovereign lending by DFIs. In the case of sovereign lending, our assessment is limited to leading multilateral DFIs, while assessment of non-sovereign lending includes both multilateral and bilateral DFIs. For multilateral DFIs that conduct both sovereign and non-sovereign activities we assess each separately. While we assess both […]

The DFI Transparency Index assesses the transparency of DFI lending to financial intermediaries (including funds, banks, and non-bank financial institutions) as well as a subset of financial intermediary sub-investments. At the level of the financial intermediary, DFI investments are treated in the same way as DFI direct investments in other sectors and, as such, the […]

Our criteria for determining which DFIs feature in the index is based on the primary mandates of the institutions, their size, the geographic scope of their work, and their suitability for assessment according to current reporting practices. We have developed separate selection criteria for multilateral and bilateral DFIs due to their vastly different sizes and […]

The First DFI Transparency Index was conducted between May 2022 and January 2023. The most recent edition of the Index began in October 2023 and launched in June 2025. Our intention is to continue running the index on a two-year cycle, recognising that it can take significant amounts of time for DFIs to change practice […]

Both the DFI Transparency Tool and the DFI Transparency Index were developed as part of Publish What You Fund’s DFI Transparency Initiative. The initiative was a multi-stakeholder research and advocacy project that aimed to improve the transparency of DFIs. We researched the state of DFI transparency and opportunities for improvement between November 2019 and November […]

The Aid Transparency Index is the only independent measure of aid transparency among the world’s major bilateral and multilateral development agencies. In later editions, the Aid Transparency Index has included assessments of multilateral DFIs. In 2022 and 2024, these DFIs had their sovereign and non-sovereign portfolios assessed separately. The Aid Transparency Index relaunched in 2026 […]