Challenges and work in progress
In this third edition of BIO’s D&S report, we highlight to what extent BIO and its clients contribute to the SDGs. We provide concrete examples of BIO’s development effectiveness and underline the central role the private sector can play towards the 2030 agenda.
There are still important challenges to overcome, however. While some of these are specific to BIO, others we share with the other European DFIs and development actors. These include improving impact management and measurement. In 2022, BIO looked at improving the monitoring of job quality and designed a Decent Work policy that addresses BIO's approach and aspirations about working conditions for its clients' value chain. BIO is committed to adopt a concrete and progressive approach to living wages: its aspiration is that all clients, their investees and contractors evolve towards paying living wages. BIO’s contribution to Decent work and quality jobs is also the focus of this year External Case Study Evaluation.
BIO actively seeks an open and constructive dialogue, prioritising collaboration with civil society organisations and other relevant stakeholders.
In 2023, BIO has started addressing the recommendations of last year’s external evaluation on reducing inequalities in its portfolio. It worked with other DFIs on the further harmonisation of development monitoring data, as well as on a joint methodology to ensure the alignment of new investments with the objectives of the Paris Agreement.
More generally, BIO is contributing to carbon neutrality, supporting its clients in decarbonating their business while increasing their climate change resilience. This will be a key priority of the new Climate Strategy for BIO, that is currently being developed under the lead of BIO’s recently hired climate expert.
BIO and other DFIs have also made progress in moving away from simply looking at gender equality and raising awareness, to supporting clients to take concrete actions. To achieve this, technical assistance subsidies are available to focus on gender programmes, but there are also more and more memoranda of understanding being signed between DFIs and their clients to formally agree on concrete gender targets and commitments.
By using the Joint Impact Model, BIO was able to shed light on some development outcomes of its investments, such as indirect job creation in key sectors like financial institutions and infrastructure. BIO will continue to support the JIM improvements, such as improving the scale or level of detail when calculating greenhouse gas emissions, adding data on storage, transmission, and distribution when assessing power systems, and – in general – refining BIO’s data in order to make the results more accurate.
BIO actively seeks an open and constructive dialogue, prioritising collaboration with civil society organisations and other relevant stakeholders. In 2022, BIO intensified its efforts by engaging NGOs through dedicated workshops, focusing on key themes such as agriculture and food security, climate action, decent work, and gender equality. Building on this success, BIO plans to host further workshops in 2023, fostering productive partnerships and meaningful exchange of ideas.