SIFEM (Switzerland) – 2023
- Score:
- 16.5
- Position:
- 26 / 30
Overview
The Swiss Investment Fund for Emerging Markets (SIFEM), is a Swiss development finance institution. SIFEM was established in 2005, after taking over the investment portfolio of the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO). SIFEM promotes long-term, sustainable and broad-based economic growth in developing and emerging countries. It was restructured to its current form in 2011. It joined the European Development Finance Institutions Association (EDFI) in 2005. SIFEM is wholly owned by the Swiss Government.
Analysis
SIFEM came third-last from the 21 non-sovereign DFIs assessed with a score of 16.5 out of 100. It came in the bottom five in all components of the index. SIFEM’s overall performance was negatively affected due to the fact that it does not disclose a bulk download export of investment data and does not publish to the IATI Standard. Also, it did not score for any project-level indicators in the four components other than in Core Information.
SIFEM came fifth-last in the Core Information component, with 5.58 out of 20. It scored for eleven out of the seventeen indicators, failing to score for the access to information policy, status, domicile, funding source, E&S risk category, and progress dates indicators. SIFEM lost points for format of publication for many indicators due to there not being a bulk download available and for not publishing to the IATI Registry. It was one of six non-sovereign DFIs that did not score for an access to information policy.
SIFEM came joint second-last in the Impact Management component with a score of 2.5 out of 25. It received these points just from the impact measurement approach indicator, but only scored 50% for the indicator. It did not score for any other indicator, including the project-level ones.
SIFEM scored 7.67 out of 30 in the ESG and Accountability to Communities component. It scored 100% for its E&S and project-level grievance (PGM) community disclosure policies. It also scored points for E&S global disclosure policy. However, SIFEM did not score for any other indicators in this component, including project-level indicators.
SIFEM came joint last in the Financial Information component, with 0.75 out of 15. It only scored points for the financial reports/statements indicator. Again, it did not score for any project-level indicators.
SIFEM came joint last in the Financial Intermediary (FI) Sub-investments component because it scored zero.
Recommendations
- SIFEM should create a disclosure/access to information policy in line with industry best practices and the DFI Transparency Tool.
- It should become an IATI publisher and disclose all investments to the IATI Standard.
- It should make its data available in a bulk download format to improve useability and accessibility.
- SIFEM should disclose further Core Information data including unique identifier, status, domicile details, sub-sector, disbursement data, funding source, E&S risk category, date of activity disclosure, approval date, signature date, and last update date. It should consistently disclose the sub-national location and total investment cost.
- It should disclose its impact measurement approach, approach to determining impact attribution, sector/country strategies, and evaluations.
- It should disclose project-level Impact Management indicators, including additionality statement, activity indicators/metrics, and results.
- SIFEM should disclose project-level ESG and Accountability to Communities indicators, including summary of E&S risks and E&S documentation.
- It should develop an early disclosure policy covering, at a minimum, high risk projects and disclose investments in line with the policy.
- SIFEM should create an independent accountability mechanism (IAM), following best practice examples It should develop an early disclosure policy covering, at a minimum, high risk projects and disclose investments in line with the policy.
- It should provide assurance of community disclosure for investments when disclosure is required.
- For Financial Information indicators it should disclose concessionality, mobilisation, and instrument-specific details (including share of equity, interest rate, and loan tenor). It should consistently disclose for repeat investment, currency of investment, and co-financing indicators.
- SIFEM should create a policy for the disclosure of FI sub-investments in line with Publish What You Fund’s DFI Transparency Tool.