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Proparco 2020 Sustainable Development Report: A focus on Proparco’s project monitoring, its impact on gender equality, its extra-financial offer, and its response to the crisis
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How does Proparco monitor the real impact of its projects? What impact do they have on female employment, and what measurement indicators has Proparco adopted? What does its extra-financial offer “PROPULSE” consist of?
Answers to these questions can be found in this third Sustainable Development Report, which reviews the top Proparco impacts that contribute to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. This detailed report covers Proparco’s action during a year marked by a health and economic crisis, to which Proparco reacted with an immediate response plan.
Thanks to the projects signed by Proparco in 2020, 2.6 million people will enjoy first-time or improved access to an essential good or service within five years. More than 800,000 jobs will be supported over the next five years. Of these, 75% will be in low- and lower-middle income countries and 31% in fragile and conflict-affected countries.
Behind these figures, how does Proparco measure the impact of the projects it finances? Proparco makes an estimation of impact at the project-examination stage (prior to signing). It later collects key indicators at the monitoring stage to find out the real impact of the projects financed. In this way, Proparco can report on the results actually achieved and identify the most effective ways to support its impact objectives. Project monitoring conducted in 2020 on the projects signed between 2015 and 2018 showed that actual project impact was in line with ex ante forecasts.
- Female employment and gender equality
Gender equality is a strategic priority for the projects financed by Proparco. In particular, Proparco supports the development of job opportunities for women. For example, by 2025, women will make up 50% of employees in one-third of the companies financed in 2020. Proparco conducted monitoring in 2020 on the outcomes, as of the end of 2019, of 214 projects signed between 2015 and 2018: 40% of the jobs supported were held by women. Thanks to the projects financed in 2020, 31,800 “direct” jobs should be created and/or maintained within the next five years for women at Proparco’s client companies or, in the case of investment funds, at the companies in which they invest. This represents four times more jobs than in 2019.
Proparco is also involved in the 2X Challenge, an initiative launched by the development finance institutions of the G7 countries, which works to strengthen the economic role of women in developing countries. Among the projects signed in 2020, 18 projects have qualified for the 2X Challenge, for total Proparco financing of €158 million. Proparco has contributed $492 million to the 2X Challenge since it was launched. In June 2021, the 2X Challenge set a new target of $15 billion in funding over the 2021-2022 period.
- PROPULSE, Proparco’s technical support offer
In addition to its financing operations, Proparco offers its clients a support system to improve their skills and practices. This service helps them not only to adapt to an increasingly competitive local and international environment, but also to commit to or further develop a socially and environmentally responsible approach. In this PROPULSE offer of technical assistance (TA), we provide our clients with expertise and know-how that round out the support that the Proparco experts provide more generally as part of their relationship with these clients. The goal is to encourage clients to achieve more positive impacts and innovations. There are three types of PROPULSE support: Responsibility TA, Performance TA, and Impact TA. These are available for each sector of activity and/or type of operator. Since 2017, 36 PROPULSE actions, financed from our own resources for a total of €2 million, have been carried out to help our clients.
Learn more about the Propulse offer
- A review of Proparco’s response to the Covid-19 crisis
As soon as the crisis broke out in March 2020, Proparco took action alongside its clients to develop a response plan, including joining AFD Group’s €1.2-billion “Covid 19 - Health in Common” initiative . To support economic recovery over the longer term, Proparco has increased its financial commitments and put new targeted tools into action, in particular through the launch of the “Resilience” component of the Choose Africa initiative to support African SMEs. This supplementary allocation of €1 billion raises the Choose Africa initiative funds to €3.5 billion and includes loans, guarantees, equity investments and support tools adapted to the crisis context. Find out more about the PROPULSE offer.