SIFEM - Swiss Investment Fund for Emerging Markets

Impact Management

SIFEM was among the first adopters of the Operating Principles for Impact Management (OPIM) which were developed by the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and launched on 12 April 2019 at the World Bank Group Spring Meetings in Washington DC. The Impact Principles provide a common market standard for what constitutes an impact investment. They describe the essential features of managing investments into companies or organisations with the intent to contribute to measurable positive social, economic, or environmental impact, alongside financial returns. Impact considerations have to be integrated into all phases of the investment lifecycle: strategy, origination and structuring, portfolio management, exit, and independent verification.
www.impactprinciples.org

Critically, the Impact Principles call for annual disclosure as to how signatories implement them, including independent verification, which will provide credibility to the adoption of the Impact Principles. SIFEM’s “Disclosure Statement” for the year 2022 can be found here

The “Independent Verification Statement” that was established in November 2020 can be found here.