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

DFI Transparency Index 2025

NDB – sovereign

Score:
26.7
Position:
9 / 10 (Sovereign)

Overview

The New Development Bank (NDB), formerly referred to as the BRICS Development Bank, is a multilateral development bank established in 2014 by Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS) with the purpose of supporting sovereign and non-sovereign projects among the five emerging markets through loans, guarantees, equity participation and other financial instruments. The New Development Bank is a new addition to the 2025 DFI Transparency Index.

Analysis

Overall, NDB’s sovereign portfolio ranked second-last of the 10 sovereign institutions assessed with a score of 26.7 out of 100. NDB’s overall performance was negatively affected due to not publishing to the IATI Standard and not having a bulk download file; all project-level points scored by NDB reflected disclosures on its project webpages.

In the Core Information component, NDB ranked second-last with a score of 9.20 out of 20. It scored for fourteen out of the seventeen indicators. The points it scored at the organisational level were for having a disclosure policy, publishing detailed disaggregated data and publishing an annual report. At the project level, NDB failed to disclose unique identifier, sub-sector, disbursement, funding source, disclosure date, last update date and investment contract. It failed to consistently disclose investment instrument. Points were lost for not having a bulk download file or publishing projects to IATI.

NDB came last with a score of 8 out of 25 in the Impact Management component. While it published its approach to impact attribution, evaluations, and aligned standards, it failed to publish an impact measurement approach, additionality approach and sector/country strategies. NDB failed on all project-level impact indicators, including activity indicators/metrics and results.

NDB also ranked last in the ESG and Accountability to Communities component, with a score of 6.25 out of 30. It scored 50 per cent for E&S global disclosure policy and 75 per cent for E&S community disclosure policy. However, NDB does not have an Independent Accountability Mechanism (IAM) so did not score for indicators related to that. It also did not have a policy on community disclosure for client-based project-level grievance mechanisms (PGMs). At the project level, NDB scored some points for disclosing summaries of E&S risks but not for other indicators including E&S project plans/assessments and assurance of community disclosure.

In the Financial Information component, NDB scored 3.25 points out of 15 and came 6th. It scored for some points for financial statements and currency of investment and scored full points on climate finance methodology and co-financing. It scored no points for both the loan pricing indicator and all new project-level climate finance indicators.

Core Information 9.2 / 30
Impact Management 8 / 30
ESG & Accountability to Communities 6.25 / 30
Financial Information 3.25 / 10

Recommendations

  • NDB should review its disclosure policy according to current best practice.
  • It should make investment data available in a bulk download format.
  • NDB should become an IATI publisher and disclose all investments to the IATI Standard.
  • It should disclose further Core Information data including unique identifier, sub-sector, disbursement, funding source, disclosure date, last update date, and investment contract. It should consistently disclose investment instrument.
  • NDB should publish its approach to measuring impact as well as its sector/country strategies.
  • It should disclose project-level Impact Management indicators, including additionality statement, activity indicators/metrics and results.
  • NDB should develop an early disclosure policy covering, at a minimum, high-risk projects and disclose investments in line with the policy.
  • It should create an independent accountability mechanism (IAM), following best practice examples and incorporate disclosure requirements for an IAM into existing policies.
  • NDB should develop a free, prior, and informed consent (FPIC) policy.
  • NDB should disclose project-level ESG and Accountability to Communities indicators, including E&S documentation and assurance of community disclosure for investments when disclosure is required.
  • For Financial Information indicators it should disclose detailed pricing information about the investment, including interest rate and loan tenor.
  • NDB should disclose whether investments include climate finance, amounts split by mitigation and adaptation, as well as a rationale for why climate finance has been counted.
Core Information 9.2 / 30
Impact Management 8 / 30
ESG & Accountability to Communities 6.25 / 30
Financial Information 3.25 / 10

Deep Dive

Core Information

9.2 / 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 / 0.67
Does it contain detailed disaggregated data?0.67 / 0.67
Is the data published under an open licence?0 / 0.67
Does the DFI disclose an annual report?0.75 / 1
Does the DFI disclose a project title?0.38 / 0.75
Does the DFI disclose a unique identifier for the project?0 / 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?0.38 / 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 / 1.5
Does the DFI disclose the total investment cost?0.13 / 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 / 0.5
Does the DFI disclose the source of funding for the investment?0 / 1.5
Does the DFI disclose the name of the client?0.75 / 1.5
Does the DFI disclose a relevant DFI contact?0.56 / 0.75
Does the DFI disclose a relevant client contact?0.56 / 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 / 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?0.09 / 0.38
Does the DFI disclose the last update date of the project data?0 / 0.38
Does the DFI disclose the investment contract for the activity?0 / 4.5

Impact Management

8 / 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?0 / 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?0 / 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

6.25 / 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?1 / 1
Does the DFI clearly articulate what E&S documentation will be disclosed to project-affected people for investments?1 / 1
Does the DFI have a free, prior, and informed consent (FPIC) policy?0 / 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?0 / 2
Does the DFI disclose a summary of E&S risks for an activity?0.75 / 1
Are E&S standards triggered by the project identified?0 / 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

3.25 / 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?0.75 / 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?0.5 / 1
Does the DFI disclose whether investment has co-financers or guarantors?0.33 / 0.33
If there are co-financers, does the DFI disclose the identity of the co-financers?0.33 / 0.33
And, does the DFI disclose the amount of financing provided by each co-financer?0.33 / 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