Transparency is fundamental to effective impact management and measurement in development finance, as sharing information on operations, decisions, and results builds trust, deepens understanding, and strengthens our ability to deliver collective impact. As Canada’s Development Finance Institution (DFI) and as a Crown corporation, we embrace our responsibility to operate in a transparent and accountable manner, and we actively seek avenues to strengthen transparency and improve reporting on our activities and their impacts. In the development finance industry, transparency fosters accountability, learning, and collaboration, while also reducing uncertainty which is crucial for encouraging investment in underserved markets.i
Although the industry has made meaningful progress in improving transparency and access to information, we recognize that there is still more to do. Transparency must be treated not simply as a reporting requirement, but as a strategic lever for achieving positive outcomes. Meeting growing expectations for accountability means not only articulating our intentions clearly but also demonstrating how those intentions translate into tangible actions, all while safeguarding commercially sensitive and/or personal information of our clients and stakeholders.
This blog aims to do just that. It outlines the steps we’re taking to strengthen transparency, highlighting the data and information we currently make available, as well as where we’re headed next.
Transparency at FinDev Canada
Guided by our Transparency and Disclosure Policy, at FinDev Canada we follow an established framework for the regular and proactive disclosure of information related to our operations, strategies, and policies, while balancing the need to protect certain types of sensitive information, whether commercial, personal, or otherwise restricted. This Policy and the related disclosures build awareness and confidence in how we deliver on our mandate and drive development impact across our target regions.
To date, we have done significant work to ensure transparency is built into our internal operations, while also making a wide range of information publicly accessible through our website.
Transparency as multi-dimensional
Transparency goes beyond simply publishing data. According to Publish What You Fund’s (PWYF) 2025 DFI Transparency Indexii, transparency is assessed across four key pillars: presence of data, quality, consistency, and format.
At FinDev Canada, our work on transparency spans all four:
Presence of data: FinDev Canada’s website serves as the primary vehicle for disclosure. Throughout the website, stakeholders have access to a wealth of information concerning FinDev Canada’s operations:
- Transparency Policy and Approach: a central hub for FinDev Canada’s disclosures, including those related to internal operations, which details internal processes, activities, and governance, and transaction disclosures (providing detailed information on individual transactions). Available for download in PDF.
- Annual Reports: Offers a summary of the latest years’ activities, highlights, audited financials, strategic direction, governance, and climate-related disclosure. Available for download in PDF.
- FinDev Canada’s Portfolio Dashboard: an interactive visual dashboard that provides portfolio and transaction-level views of investment and impact-related data, as well as access to more detailed client pages. Available for bulk download in CSV.
- FinDev Canada’s Development Impact Approach: outlines FinDev Canada’s approach to impact management and measurement (IMM) and Development Impact Policy. Available for download in PDF.
- Disclosure Statement - Operating Principles for Impact Management (OPIM): outlines how FinDev Canada’s investments are managed in alignment with the Impact Principles. Available for download in PDF.
- Impact Stories: provide an in-depth look at the impact FinDev Clients drive in their communities. Available for download in PDF.
- Environmental and Social Risk Policy: outlines FinDev Canada’s approach to managing environmental and social risk. Available for download in PDF.
Quality of publication at FinDev Canada: Data quality is fundamental to effectively measure impact and make informed decisions. At FinDev Canada, we have taken several steps to promote data quality, recently introducing measures to ensure our evaluation process preserves our impact data lineage and assesses the quality of data sources. Furthermore, our impact management and measurement (IMM) system is independently verified periodically to ensure alignment with the Operating Principles of Impact Management (OPIM).
Consistency of publication: Consistent collection and disclosure of transaction-related data is essential for meaningful analysis. Our Development Impact Approach promotes the rigorous tracking and reporting of impact data across all our transactions. Our impact tracking and reporting approach seeks to align with leading industry standards such as:
- The 2X Criteria,
- MDB Common Principles for Climate Mitigation Finance Tracking,
- MDB Joint Methodology for Tracking Climate Change Adaptation Finance
- IRIS+,
- HIPSO,
- SDGs,
- and the Partnership for Carbon Accounting Financials (PCAF).
Format of publication: We strive to ensure that our disclosures are accessible and formatted in a way that supports usability. FinDev Canada’s Portfolio Dashboard is a good example, offering both interactive visualizations to gather quick insight into our portfolio, and a CSV that allows bulk downloads for deeper analysis.
Our work doesn’t stop here. We continuously seek to improve based on the learnings we gather from industry, peers, and organizations like PWYF. As the demand for transparency grows, so does our commitment to improving how we share information.
What’s next for Transparency at FinDev Canada
As IDB Invest highlights, “At its core, transparency means making information accessible, understandable, and usable.” iii As our portfolio grows, so does the wealth of data and information we collect, unlocking greater opportunities for us to share insights to a broader audience.
Here are two recent initiatives we’re excited to share in the spirit of learning and continuous improvement:
Independent impact evaluation: We’ve recently published our first-ever independent impact evaluation on 2X Challenge investments, conducted by Canadian consulting firm Kore Global, examining gender-related outcomes across our investment portfolio. The results of this evaluation are featured in Kore Global’s gender evaluation synthesis brief, which compares and synthesizes the findings alongside evaluations conducted on peer DFIs BII and Proparco. We plan to continue expanding our research agenda, promoting continuous learning and bringing more insights to our stakeholders and peers.
Enhanced reporting: In 2026 we are enhancing our online reporting, making our data more accessible, centralized and discoverable. These changes mean wider availability of transaction-level information, making client and investment-specific details easier to find.
Conclusion
Improvements to transparency benefit everyone, strengthening trust, accountability, and the effectiveness of DFIs to achieve their intended development impact. Greater access to information improves the understanding of how our investments support development, bringing us closer to collectively achieving the Sustainable Development Goalsiv.
While proud of our progress, we remain committed to continuous improvement. Guided by the belief that transparency is a shared journey, we will continue working alongside our partners, stakeholders, and the communities we serve to make our information more accessible, meaningful, and impactful.
Curious to learn more about FinDev Canada? We encourage you to visit the resources linked above and follow us for regular updates on our activities.
For further reading on Transparency in the Development Finance space, check out the resources below:
- Publish What You Fund DFI Transparency Index 2025
- International Aid Transparency Initiative 2025 Report: Powering Transparency
- Operating Principles for Impact Management, Principle 9: Disclosure and Verification
i IDB Invest (August 6th, 2025). Four Reasons Why Transparency is a Strategic Asset for Development Finance Institutions.
ii Publish What you Fund (2025). DFI Transparency Index 2025. p. 8-9.
iii IDB Invest (August 6th, 2025).
iv Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (February 7th, 2025). Global Outlook on Financing for Sustainable Development 2025.