Annual Report 2023
Building a Better Future
IFC has one focus: private sector solutions to address development challenges. We take on tough problems that governments alone can’t solve, providing business-based answers that are innovative, inclusive, and equip leaders with key tools for success.
A confluence of global development challenges means that we must raise our level of ambition to create a world free of poverty on a livable planet. In response, we have increased our private capital mobilization, investment, and advisory services to new levels, harnessing the power of the power of the private sector for impact—where it is needed most.
Message from IFC Managing Director, Makhtar Diop
This year brought a continued wave of challenges with global growth slowing sharply, extreme poverty increasing, the climate crisis intensifying, and new conflicts emerging. As these overlapping crises continued to intensify, IFC responded with scale and speed.
Letter from IFC Board
Over the past year, the World Bank Group Executive Directors have engaged with World Bank Group leadership about persisting global crises and the urgent need for approaches to restore progress toward the Sustainable Development Goals.
Letter from World Bank President, Ajay Banga
Deeply intertwined challenges — poverty, pandemics, climate change, debt, conflict, food insecurity, and fragility — are eroding decades of hard-won development progress; the world is looking to us for solutions. Fortunately, the World Bank is built to take on difficult challenges.
Strategy in Action
Working within the World Bank Group, IFC is the largest global development finance institution focused on mobilizing private sector solutions to achieve a world free of poverty on a livable planet. At a time of unprecedented global challenges, we are raising our private capital mobilization, investment, and advisory services to new levels, harnessing the potential of the private sector to deliver meaningful impact for the people and places that need it most.
In our work, we focus on solutions that are innovative, inclusive, and equip leaders with knowledge and skills to address development challenges. The summaries that follow highlight some of our most impactful work in FY23.
Innovation
Simplifying our internal business processes this year allowed us to do more than ever — moving faster, working more flexibly, and taking on more risks.
In today’s challenging global conditions, we must open our minds to new ways of doing business. We are supporting innovative business models that drive the development outcomes governments desire but cannot achieve with their own resources.
Breaking new ground means working with new clients and partners, engaging early in the process, experimenting with new tools and approaches, and sometimes mitigating risks with blended finance. But these are risks that must be taken. They allow us to find opportunities amid the challenges, proving the business case time and again for others to follow.
Inclusion
Across everything we do, IFC works to support inclusive business models that improve livelihoods and create opportunities for the people who need them most.
This means opening doors to business opportunities for women entrepreneurs and job creation for those at the base of the economic pyramid, such as refugees. More broadly, it also means widening the private sector’s role in countries that receive little investment or face other major challenges. However it is defined, inclusive business models are needed for growth to be sustainable and effective in reducing poverty.
Thought Leadership and Capacity Building
Collaborating with partners to build expertise and share knowledge is an essential part of IFC’s mission.
In addition to the hundreds of projects we carry out each year, we conduct regional and thematic research initiatives to provide evidence-driven recommendations on how the private sector can help address the most urgent challenges of development. These efforts help set a broader agenda for business and finance in the developing world, pointing the way to new solutions for a more sustainable and inclusive world.
Through partnerships, we also work to build the capacity of leaders in emerging and developing economies to develop their skills and knowledge.
Financial Reporting and Results
IFC Financials
In FY23, IFC committed a record $43.7 billion to private companies and financial institutions in developing countries, leveraging the power of the private sector in development.
IFC FY23 Results and Impact
In all that we do, IFC seeks to maximize our development impact and improve our performance. The size and diversity of our investment portfolio — $70.1 billion for IFC’s own account — ensured that IFC achieved significant impact in nearly every region of the world.
World Bank Group Results
The World Bank Group provided much-needed financing; conducted in-depth analysis and research; and partnered with governments, the private sector, and other institutions to help developing countries address urgent needs.