IFC Publishes Impact Investing Principles

This week, the IFC published the final version of its Impact Investing: Operating Principles for Impact Management (the Principles). The Principles are a set of voluntary guidelines for impact investors, touching on impact strategy, assessment, and monitoring. In addition to guiding impact investors on managing positive impacts, the Principles advise them to assess, address, and monitor the negative impacts of their investments through a systematic and documented process.

Impact investment managers must also go a step further and put community feedback at the heart of their processes. As we noted in our joint submission on a draft version of the Principles, community feedback mechanisms – which could be standalone or tied to existing investor networks that are thematic, regional, and/or general and global – can help effectuate many of the IFC’s Principles. Embedding community feedback into assessment, monitoring, and learning processes will help managers avoid and address negative impacts and ensure positive impacts accrue to the communities they were intended to benefit.