CAF – non-sovereign
- Score:
- 33.4
- Position:
- 13 / 22 (Non-sovereign)
Overview
The Development Bank of Latin America and the Caribbean (CAF), is a development finance institution that finances development projects and promotes a sustainable development model in Latin America and the Caribbean through credit operations, non-reimbursable resources, and technical assistance. CAF was established in 1970 and currently has 17 members. Its non-sovereign portfolio finances development projects in the private sector. CAF became a member of the International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI) in 2024.
Analysis
Overall, CAF’s non-sovereign portfolio ranked 13th out of 22 institutions assessed, scoring 33.4 out of 100. This is a strong improvement of 25 points from its position as third-last in 2023 when it scored 8.4 out of 100. In 2023, no non-sovereign investments were identified in its data portal and therefore all project-level indicators failed, whereas sampling six non-sovereign projects in 2025 significantly boosted CAF’s score and ranking. CAF now also makes a bulk download file of investment data available and publishes investments to the IATI Standard. However, CAF’s overall score was affected due to having insufficiently complete recent investment data, meaning a 50% penalty was applied across project-level indicators. Without this penalty, CAF’s non-sovereign portfolio would have scored 43.5 points and placed five positions higher in the Index.
CAF ranked 16th in the Core Information component with a score of 9 out of 30, improving from its position as second-last in 2023 with a score of 1.5. It went from only scoring two out of seventeen indicators in 2023 to scoring sixteen out of seventeen in 2025. At the organisational level, it received 100 per cent on accessibility and annual report indicators. At the project level, the only sub-indicators it did not score for were due to missing disclosures on sub-national location, sub-sector, client description, client contact, and not disclosing the E&S risk category consistently enough.
CAF’s non-sovereign portfolio performed strongly in the Impact Management component, ranking 3rd out of 22 with a score of 14 out of 25, a marked improvement from its joint second-last position in 2023. Whereas it previously only scored for aligned impact standards and additionality approach, this Index saw CAF achieve 100 per cent across all organisation-level indicators in this component. At the project level, CAF scored for consistently disclosing activity results indicators and metrics but failed to consistently disclose additionality statements and current results data, and did not publish baseline or target values for the indicators.
In the ESG and Accountability to Communities component, CAF ranked third-last with a score of 6.5 out of 30. This is a slight improvement from its position as joint second-last in 2023. Its performance improved on some policy-level indicators including explanation of E&S risk categorisation and PGM community disclosure policy. However, CAF continued not to score for any project-level indicators in this component, including E&S risk summaries, E&S documentation and assurance of community disclosure.
CAF came 11th in the Financial Information component, scoring 3.25 out of 15 and maintaining its 2023 ranking. At the organisational level, CAF improved by publishing its financial reports/statements to the IATI Registry and scoring on the new climate finance methodology indicator. CAF also saw new disclosures on currency of investment and concessionality. However, CAF continued not to score for repeat investment, co-financing, instrument-specific disclosure and did not score for any of the new project-level climate finance indicators. Although it did not score for the mobilisation indicator due to inconsistent disclosure across the whole sample, we noted significant progress through the creation of a dedicated private sector mobilisation portal on its website.
In the Financial Intermediary Sub-Investments component, CAF came second-last out of 22 with 0.63 out of 10. The only improvement was new disclosure on use of funds (banks) at the project level. CAF did not score for any other indicators in this component.
Recommendations
- CAF should ensure timely project disclosure, with projects published as early as possible and without delay. It should also ensure its database is complete and includes all projects.
- CAF should review its disclosure policy according to current best practice.
- CAF should disclose further Core Information data including sub-national location, sub-sector, client description and client contact. It should add funding source to its bulk file and consistently disclose E&S category.
- CAF should disclose additionality statements consistently at the project level. It should disclose baseline and target value data for identified indicators and ensure actual/current value data is consistently published.
- It should develop an early disclosure policy covering, at a minimum, high-risk projects and disclose investments in line with the policy.
- CAF should update its E&S community disclosure policy to require early disclosure and clearly articulate what E&S documentation will be disclosed to project-affected people.
- It should create an IAM, following best practice examples and incorporate disclosure requirements for an IAM into existing policies.
- CAF should disclose project-level ESG and Accountability to Communities indicators, such as summary of E&S risks, E&S documentation and assurance of community disclosure.
- For Financial Information, CAF should begin disclosing whether an investment is a repeat investment, co-financing data, mobilisation, instrument-specific disclosure and project-level climate finance data.
- CAF should develop a policy for disclosing qualifying sub-investments according to the DFI Transparency Tool and disclose in line with it. It should also define use of funds for FIs (banks) at the organisational level.