IADB Group

In terms of senior leadership accountability, the responsibility for sustainability issues at IADB lies with the board of executive directors. In addition, IADB publicly commits to gender equality and women’s empowerment and has a 2020-23 target on projects supporting gender equality. Furthermore, the DFI discloses a list of trade associations of which it is a member including sustainability- and non-sustainability-related organisations.

IADB discloses the total amount devoted to climate finance and provides a breakdown of its climate mitigation and adaption finance. It also aims to deliver a total of USD 24 billion in green and climate finance in the next four years. Furthermore, the subsidiary IDB Invest demonstrates progress on projects supporting climate change mitigation and adaptation. By signing the Joint Statement by the Multilateral Development Banks: Nature, People, and Planet, IADB is committed to minimising its negative impacts on nature and biodiversity. Furthermore, IADB’s subsidiary IDB Bank includes biodiversity within its environmental and social performance standards, meaning that it engages with its clients on the topic of biodiversity, monitors their performance and requires them to have a biodiversity management plan.

In addition to requiring borrowers to have a human rights impact assessment in place, IADB identifies and assesses human rights risks in its investment activities through its clients. Furthermore, it has a grievance mechanism platform accessible to all stakeholders to raise human rights and bribery and corruption complaints. IADB provides evidence of engagement with stakeholders whose human rights have been or may be impacted by its activities and it discloses two complaints related to allegations of harm resulting from violations of the rights of indigenous peoples. In addition, the DFI discloses the proportion of women in its total direct operations workforce for each employee category.

IADB has an opportunity to link the remuneration of its executive or management teams to sustainability performance criteria. In terms of female representation in leadership positions, women are underrepresented on the board of directors where only three out of eight board members are women. Furthermore, the DFI has an opportunity to reach at least 40% female representation in senior leadership positions at the group level. It can also improve its performance by disclosing the actions it takes to address any pay gaps. Although IADB has a process to monitor its financing activities against its environmental and social policy framework, the latter applies only to IDB Bank. Therefore, the development finance institution has the opportunity to describe its engagement approach on sustainability topics with clients at the group level.

While IADB discloses a commitment to align its loans and projects to the Paris Agreement, the commitment is yet to be formalised. Moreover, IADB discloses that it engages on climate with member countries and clients for investments in renewable energy, energy efficiency, low-carbon transportation, sustainable urban development, and agriculture. However, it has an opportunity to disclose the rationale behind choosing these priorities. Although the DFI discloses that it supports countries in reaching net zero emissions, it could clarify how it works with them on a 1.5-degree trajectory alignment. In addition, IADB could align its climate mitigation and adaptation finance with internationally recognised frameworks.

IADB has an opportunity to disclose a clear policy commitment to respect all human rights and the health and safety of workers at the group level. While it discloses the age of its overall female workforce and female complementary workforce, it could disclose this information for each employee category. To provide transparency on financial inclusivity, IADB has an opportunity to disclose the amount of finance directed towards women-owned businesses, small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), or low-income developing countries.