Proparco (France)
- Score:
- 43.5
- Position:
- 8 / 22 (Non-sovereign)
Overview
The Promotion and Participation Company for Economic Cooperation (Proparco), is a French development finance institution. It was established in 1977 and ownership is split between the majority shareholder, Agence Francaise de Developpement (AFD) (79.8%), French Financial Institutions (8.2%), International Financial Organisations (10%), French Companies (1.4%), and Investment Funds & Foundations (0.6%). Proparco’s mandate is to foster private investment in emerging and developing economies with the aim of supporting growth and sustainability. It joined the European Development Finance Institutions Association (EDFI) in 1997.
Analysis
Proparco ranked 8th of 22 non-sovereign DFIs assessed with a score of 43.5 out of 100, keeping the same position as in 2023 where it also ranked 8th but scored 34.5. Proparco gained points by publishing data in a bulk download format but missed out on additional points by not publishing to the IATI Standard. Improvements since 2023 included new disclosures on status, approval date, impact attribution approach, E&S risk categorisation explanation, co-financing and repeat investment.
Proparco ranked 5th in the Core Information component with a score of 14.75 out of 20, dropping two places from 3rd in 2023, when it scored 13.33. At the organisational level, it scored for all indicators apart from the question on the limitations of sensitive information. At the project level, key improvements since 2023 included new disclosures on project status and approval date in Proparco’s bulk download file. However, it lost points due to a number of inaccurate sub-national location coordinates, and failed to disclose sub-sector, total investment cost, client contact, disclosure date and last update date.
In the Impact Management component, Proparco came 11th with a score of 8.75 out of 25, keeping the same ranking as in 2023. It scored almost 100 per cent at the organisational level, only losing points on disclosing the evaluations it conducts. One improvement since 2023 was Proparco’s publication of its approach to measuring impact attribution on its website. Proparco continued to not score for any project-level indicators in this component including impact metrics and results.
Proparco ranked joint 10th in the ESG and Accountability to Communities component, scoring 11.50 out of 30, maintaining the same position as in 2023. It gained points for providing an explanation of E&S risk categorisation and continued to score 100 per cent for its E&S and project-level grievance (PGM) community disclosure policies. Proparco scored points for its independent accountability mechanism (IAM), but it did not score for a community disclosure policy for it. Apart from the disclosure of its IAM on project pages, Proparco continued to not score points for project-level indicators including summary of E&S risks, E&S documentation and assurance of community disclosure.
In the Financial Information component, Proparco ranked 2nd amongst all non-sovereign institutions with a score of 7.28 out of 15. This is a marked improvement from 2023 where it ranked 6th. Key gains included new disclosures on co-financing and repeat investments in its bulk download file. Notably, Proparco scored on nearly all the new climate finance indicators, publishing its climate finance methodology and providing a breakdown of amounts by mitigation and adaptation. However, it did not score on climate finance rationale and continued to lose points on concessionality, mobilisation, and instrument-specific disclosures.
Finally, Proparco came joint 8th with a score of 1.25 out of 15 the Financial Intermediaries (FI) Sub-Investments component. In 2023 it came joint 7th. As in 2023, it did not score for any organisation-level indicators and only scored for the FI (bank) use of funds indicator at the project level.
Recommendations
- Proparco should become an IATI publisher and disclose all investments to the IATI Standard.
- It should disclose further Core Information data including sub-sector, total investment cost, disbursement, client contact, date of activity disclosure and last update date. It should ensure all co-ordinates disclosing sub-national location are accurate.
- Proparco should ensure it disclose the evaluations it conducts.
- It should disclose project-level Impact Management indicators, including additionality statement, activity indicators/metrics and results.
- It should develop an early disclosure policy covering, at a minimum, high risk projects and disclose investments in line with the policy.
- Proparco should create a policy guiding disclosure of the presence of the IAM at community level.
- It should consistently disclose project-level ESG and Accountability to Communities indicators, including summary of E&S risks and E&S documentation.
- It should provide assurance of community disclosure for investments when disclosure is required. It should also consistently disclose the main shareholders of the client company and disclose beneficial ownership statements.
- For Financial Information indicators it should disclose for concessionality, mobilisation, instrument-specific details (share of equity and loan tenor) and climate finance rationales. It should consistently disclose for the identity and financing provided by co-financers.
- Proparco should create a policy for the disclosure of FI sub-investments in line with Publish What You Fund’s DFI Transparency Tool.