Publish What You FundPublish What You Fund

The Global Campaign for Aid and Development Transparency

NEWSLETTER

CONTACT

Home/DFI Index/DFI Transparency Index 2025/CAF – sovereign
DFI

DFI Transparency Index 2025

CAF – sovereign

Score:
35.3
Position:
8 / 10 (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 sovereign portfolio finances projects in the public sector. became a member of the International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI) in 2024.

Analysis

Overall, CAF’s sovereign portfolio ranked 8th out of 10 sovereign institutions assessed with a score of 35.3 out of 100. This marks a big jump from its score of only 9.3 in 2023 when it ranked 8th out of 9. CAF’s overall score was improved due to it now making a bulk download file of investment data available and publishing 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 sovereign portfolio would have scored 44.3 points.

In the Core Information component, CAF came 7th with a score of 12 out of 30, up one position from 2023 but improving greatly from a score of 2.88. Its performance improved across many indicators, with new disclosures since 2023 raising scores for project identification, status, project description, sovereign/non-sovereign labels, sector, investment instrument, project costs, funding source, client information, contacts, E&S risk category, and progress dates. While it scored on 6 of 17 indicators in 2023, it scored on 16 of 17 in 2025.

CAF ranked 7th in the Impact Management component, scoring 14 out of 30. While in 2023 it only scored on impact measurement approach; sector/country strategies and evaluations meant that CAF scored 100 per cent on all organisational level indicators in this Index. However, it did not score for the project-level indicators in this component because it did not consistently disclose the activity indicators/metrics and baseline and target results data. It also did not disclose actual results.

In the ESG and Accountability to Communities component, CAF ranked 8th, scoring 6.88 out of 30. This is a slight improvement in rankings since 2023 when it came last out of the 9 institutions assessed. Its performance improved on some policy-level indicators including explanation of E&S risk categorisation and project-level grievance mechanism (PGM) community disclosure policy. The only indicator it scored for at the project level was for identifying what E&S standards are triggered by the project. All other project-level indicators failed, including summary of E&S risks, documentation and assurance of community disclosure.

CAF came 8th in the Financial Information component with a score of 2.42 out of 10. Since 2023, it added disclosures on currency of investment, co-financing, and passed the new climate finance methodology indicator. However, it still did not score on detailed co-financing or loan pricing data and failed all new project-level climate finance indicators.

Core Information 12 / 30
Impact Management 14 / 30
ESG & Accountability to Communities 6.87 / 30
Financial Information 2.42 / 10

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.
  • It should review its disclosure policy according to current best practice.
  • CAF should disclose further Core Information data including sub-national location, sub-sector, client contact, and investment contract. It should add funding source to its bulk download.
  • It should consistently disclose activity indicators, their metrics and definitions, and baseline and target results data. It should also start disclosing actual impact results.
  • CAF should develop an early disclosure policy covering, at a minimum, high-risk projects and disclose investments in line with the policy.
  • It 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 disclose more detailed co-financing data, and begin disclosing loan pricing information and project-level climate finance data.
Core Information 12 / 30
Impact Management 14 / 30
ESG & Accountability to Communities 6.87 / 30
Financial Information 2.42 / 10

Deep Dive

Core Information

12 / 30
About component

The basic information that describes a DFI’s organisational policies and investments. This type of information is typically found in key organisation documents and represents the first tier of project information, typically disclosed on project web pages or in files available for bulk download. At the organisation level this includes access to information policies and annual reports. At the project level, this includes project titles, locations, and key dates.

Does the development finance institution (DFI) have a disclosure or access to information policy?0.75 / 0.75
Does the policy include a presumption of disclosure?0 / 0.75
Does the policy have limitations of commercially sensitive information and sensitive internal deliberations information?0 / 0.75
Does the policy have an independent appeals process?0 / 0.75
Does the DFI's portal allow free, bulk export of data?0.67 / 0.67
Does it contain detailed disaggregated data?0.67 / 0.67
Is the data published under an open licence?0.67 / 0.67
Does the DFI disclose an annual report?1 / 1
Does the DFI disclose a project title?0.38 / 0.75
Does the DFI disclose a unique identifier for the project?0.38 / 0.75
Does the DFI disclose the current status of the activity?0.75 / 1.5
Does the DFI disclose a description of the activity?0.38 / 0.75
Does the DFI disclose the objectives, rationales, and expected outcomes of the activity?0.38 / 0.75
Does the DFI disclose the country the activity takes place in?0.38 / 0.75
Does the DFI disclose the sub-national location the activity takes place in?0 / 0.75
Does the DFI disclose the activity as sovereign or non-sovereign? Or; Does the DFI disclose the activity as public sector or private sector?0.75 / 1.5
Does the DFI disclose the sector of the activity?0.38 / 0.75
Does the DFI disclose the sub-sector of the activity?0 / 0.75
Does the DFI disclose the investment instrument of an activity?0.75 / 1.5
Does the DFI disclose the total investment cost?0.25 / 0.5
Does the DFI disclose the DFI commitment for the investment?0.25 / 0.5
Does the DFI disclose the disbursement for the investment?0.25 / 0.5
Does the DFI disclose the source of funding for the investment?0.38 / 1.5
Does the DFI disclose the name of the client?0.75 / 1.5
Does the DFI disclose a relevant DFI contact?0.38 / 0.75
Does the DFI disclose a relevant client contact?0 / 0.75
Does the DFI disclose the environmental and social (E&S) risk category of the activity?0.75 / 1.5
Does the DFI disclose the date of activity disclosure?0.19 / 0.38
Does the DFI disclose the approval date of the activity?0.19 / 0.38
Does the DFI disclose the signature date of the activity?0.19 / 0.38
Does the DFI disclose the last update date of the project data?0.19 / 0.38
Does the DFI disclose the investment contract for the activity?0 / 4.5

Impact Management

14 / 30
About component

The ways in which a DFI predicts, measures, and evaluates the impacts of their investments. At the organisation level, this includes an impact measurement approach. At the project level, this includes activity indicators/metrics and results.

Does the DFI publish a methodology explaining its approach to impact measurement?2 / 2
Does the DFI indicate which standards/initiatives it is aligned to?2 / 2
Does the DFI explain its approach to determining impact attribution?2 / 2
Does the DFI publish sector or (multi-)country strategies?4 / 4
Does the DFI have a policy on the evaluation of investments?2 / 2
Does the DFI disclose the evaluations that it conducts?2 / 2
Does the DFI disclose results indicators for the activity?0 / 4
Does the DFI disclose metrics, definitions and/or methodologies for the indicators?0 / 4
Does the DFI disclose baseline data for identified indicators?0 / 2.67
Does the DFI disclose a target value for the indicators?0 / 2.67
Does the DFI disclose an actual/current value for the indicators?0 / 2.67

ESG & Accountability to Communities

6.87 / 30
About component

The ways in which a DFI predicts, mitigates, and communicates the ESG aspects of their activities. At the organisation level this includes E&S global disclosure policy and E&S community disclosure policy. At the project level this includes E&S plans and assessments, and assurance of community disclosure.

Does the DFI have a policy on early disclosure of investments?0 / 0.83
Does the DFI clearly articulate what E&S documentation will be disclosed for medium and high-risk projects?0 / 0.83
Does the DFI disclose the E&S policies/standards it applies (e.g. IFC Performance Standards or in-house policies) for its investments?0.83 / 0.83
Does the DFI have a policy that specifies when a document should be translated and in which language?0 / 0.83
Does the DFI disclose an explanation of project risk categorisation?0.83 / 0.83
Does the DFI disclose a list of investment exemptions?0.83 / 0.83
Does the DFI have a community disclosure policy?1 / 1
Does the policy require early disclosure to project-affected people?0 / 1
Does the DFI clearly articulate what E&S documentation will be disclosed to project-affected people for investments?0 / 1
Does the DFI have a free, prior, and informed consent (FPIC) policy?1 / 1
Does the DFI disclose the availability of the Independent Accountability Mechanism (IAM) on its website?0 / 1
Does the DFI IAM have a publicly available registry that publishes results, responses, or findings?0 / 1
Does the DFI require clients to disclose the availability of the IAM to project-affected people where appropriate? Or; Does the DFI state that it will disclose the availability of IAM to project-affected people?0 / 2
Does the DFI require clients to disclose the availability of the project-level grievance mechanism (PGM) to project-affected people where appropriate? Or; Does the DFI state that it will disclose the availability of the PGM to project-affected people?2 / 2
Does the DFI disclose a summary of E&S risks for an activity?0 / 1
Are E&S standards triggered by the project identified?0.38 / 1
Does the DFI disclose the minimum E&S documentation for the risk categorisation?0 / 1.33
Does the DFI disclose what E&S documentation was produced for the activity?0 / 1.33
Does the DFI disclose all identified E&S documents that were produced for the activity?0 / 1.33
Does the DFI state if disclosure of the activity to projected-affected people was required?0 / 1
If yes, then: Does the DFI state the date of community E&S disclosure?0 / 1
Does the DFI state the place of community E&S disclosure?0 / 1
Does the DFI state the method of community disclosure?0 / 1
Does the DFI state what documentation was disclosed?0 / 1
Does the DFI identify the language of disclosure to project-affected people?0 / 1
Does the DFI state if the presence of a project grievance mechanism was disclosed and the method it was disclosed?0 / 1
Does the DFI state if the presence of an independent accountability mechanism was disclosed and the method it was disclosed?0 / 1
Does the DFI disclose the presence of the IAM on the DFI project page?0 / 1

Financial Information

2.42 / 10
About component

This information provides details on the financial performance of DFIs and the structuring of investments. At the organisation level, this includes audited financial reports. At the project level, this includes currency of investment, mobilisation, and concessionality

Does the DFI disclose audited financial reports/statements?1 / 1
Does the DFI publish a methodology explaining its approach to calculating climate finance?1 / 1
Does the DFI disclose the currency that the investment is made in?0.25 / 1
Does the DFI disclose whether investment has co-financers or guarantors?0.17 / 0.33
If there are co-financers, does the DFI disclose the identity of the co-financers?0 / 0.33
And, does the DFI disclose the amount of financing provided by each co-financer?0 / 0.33
Does the DFI disclose detailed pricing information about the investment, including interest rate and loan tenor?0 / 2
Does the DFI disclose whether an investment includes climate finance?0 / 0.67
If the investment includes climate finance: Does the DFI disclose whether it is mitigation and/or adaptation climate finance?0 / 0.67
Does the DFI disclose the amount of climate finance for the investment?0 / 0.67
Does the DFI disclose the amount of mitigation and/or adaptation finance for the investment?0 / 0.67
Does the DFI disclose a rationale for why climate finance has been counted?0 / 0.67
Does the DFI disclose a budget breakdown for climate finance? (sovereign only)0 / 0.67