CERISE+SPTF and OECD MEETING 2022

FINANCE UNITED: IMPACT INVESTORS, FINANCIAL SERVICE PROVIDERS, AND THE SDGs

Cerise+SPTF and OECD are grateful to all our expert panelists and speakers who made the event a success.

Opening keynote addresses

Global leaders from the fields of impact management and standards-setting shared perspectives on how we can work together to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.

Richard Barker

Member, International Sustainability Standards Board

Edgardo Perez Preciado

General Manager, Fundación Génesis
Empresarial

Sean Turnbull

Impact and Experimentation Lead, Global Affairs Canada

DOWNLOAD THE MATERIALS

Presentation of Edgardo Perez Preciado

(NB: Mr. Perez’s is the only visual presentation from among the morning’s keynotes.)

Watch the OECD TV recording of the opening keynotes

“We tend to fall back to the easiest way to compare potential investments, which means financial tools–but this puts impact discussions at a disadvantage. We need to develop serious impact modeling frameworks that allow us to compare the level of social impact of disparate types of investments.”

Sean Turnbull

Panel Discussion

How standards can be a force for good

A conversation among leading standard setters reflected on the power of standards to teach, to change culture, and to promote responsible action.

PANELISTS

Ben Carpenter

CEO, Social Value International

Laura Foose

Executive Director, Social Performance Task Force (SPTF)

Fabienne Michaux

Director, SDG Impact Team, UNDP

Haje Schütte

Head of Division, Financing Sustainable Development, OECD

MODERATOR

Krisztina Tora

Chief Market Development Officer, Global Steering Group on Impact Investment (GSG)

“Culture and intentionality are key. In terms of standards: do not ask whether you can or must adopt them. Ask yourself, do you want to adopt them?”

Fabienne Michaux (UNDP)

CASE STUDY

The Microfinance Enhancement Facility: Using standards and social performance management tools for greater impact

The Microfinance Enhancement Facility (MEF) was initiated in 2009 by KfW and IFC, as a joint initiative with OeEB (the Development Bank of Austria). Coadvised by four private investment advisors, BlueOrchard Finance AG, Incofin Investment Management, responsAbility Investments AG, and Symbiotics SA, and supported by Innpact in the role of General Secretary, MEF’s objective is to ensure that microfinance continues to stimulate growth, create jobs, and reduce  poverty in emerging markets. MEF investors are committed to social impact, and in this session, they explained how they embed the Impact Standards for Financing Sustainable Development (IS-FSD) at the institutional level in order to further their social and environmental goals. The session also explored the benefits that all stakeholders involved in the MEF, from asset owners to asset managers to financial service providers, have experienced from using this tool, as well as the lessons learned, and MEF’s ideas for how to improve performance further by deepening its engagement with social and environmental performance management tools and resources.

SPEAKERS

Dina Pons

Managing Partner, Incofin Investment Management

Christelle Champetter

Senior Fund Manager, Innpact

Paul Hailey

Head of Sustainability & Impact, responsAbility

Jens Wirth

Division Head for Financial Inclusion and Global Funds in
the Equity and Funds Department, KfW Development Bank

MODERATOR

Cécile Lapenu

Executive Director, CERISE

“How do we make impact governance a reality? We look at how to put standards that are actionable. We have been part of the journey of SPTF for a very long time. We had a social performance due diligence tool. Then SPTF came and we admitted that it was better to embrace the common industry tool.”

Dina Pons,

Managing Partner, Incofin Investment Management

CASE STUDY

Using Data for Decision-Making: Investors (IDB Invest, Incofin, DFC) and financial service providers (Genesis, Crystal) share how they use impact data to improve performance
In this session, IDB Invest, DFC, and Incofin discussed how they set up their respective impact management and measurement systems in line with the OECD UNDP Impact Standards for Financing Sustainable Development (ISFSD), while financial service providers Fundación Génesis Empresarial (Guatemala) and Crystal (Georgia) described how they implement the Universal Standards for Social and Environmental Performance Management (“Universal Standards”) and the rigor they bring to the collection and analysis of client outcome data. Speakers also described how the combined effect of implementing the IS-FSD and the Universal Standards strengthens the ability of all stakeholders to achieve their impact goals.
SPEAKERS

Loïc De Cannière

Founder and Chair, Incofin Investment Management

Leticia Emme

Managing Director, Impact Management, Monitoring, and
Learning (IMML), Office of Development Policy, U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC)

Maya Kobalia

Head of Environmental and Social (E&S) Division, Crystal

Alessandro Maffioli

Chief, Development Effectiveness Division, IDB Invest

Edgardo Perez Preciado

General Manager, Fundación Génesis
Empresarial

MODERATOR

Amelia Greenberg

Deputy Director, SPTF

“It is important to collect data not only for accountability, but also to correct and to improve. This is equally true for delivering impact as it is for financial performance.”

Alessandro Maffioli, IDB Invest

CASE STUDY

Nordic Microfinance Initiative integrates social performance management into its own investment management systems and into the governance structures of its investees.

This session explored how investors and financial service providers can use existing standards and tools to professionalize social and environmental performance management (SEPM) within their organizations. Diving into the specific case of NMI, NMI funder IFU, and NMI investee Svasti, which is a financial services provider in India, panelists discussed how they have aligned their practices with the pillars of strategy, governance, and transparency that are integral to both the Impact Standards for Financing Sustainable Development (IS-FSD) and the Universal Standards for SEPM in order to improve their impact and to hold themselves accountable to their impact goals.
SPEAKERS

Birgitte Bang Nielsen

Sustainability Director, Investment Fund for Developing Countries (IFU)

Smriti Chandra

Board member, Svasti (via video)

Arunkumar Padmanabhan

CEO, Svasti

Lone Søndergaard

Senior Investment Manager, Nordic Microfinance
Initiative (NMI)

MODERATOR

Laura Foose

Executive Director, SPTF

“There is a very close correlation between best business practices and these principles from the Universal Standards. For example, the Universal Standards had a positive impact on attrition. As the Universal Standards have really become part of our company’s culture and values, customer surveys revealed that our employees began interacting with clients at a higher level, and that was why clients kept coming back to Svasti.”

Arunkumar Padmanabhan

CASE STUDY

UN Joint SDG Fund

The UN Joint SDG Fund is a flagship international multi-donor and multiagency development mechanism that operates on a two-fold strategic mandate to supercharge the United Nations Development System to be fit for purpose and, in turn, to catalyze systemic transitions at the country level in areas of integrated policy and financing to accelerate the SDGs. In this session, the Joint SDG Fund described how it applies the OECD-UNDP Impact Standards for Financing Sustainable Development, to bring discipline to measuring non-financial performance, which in turn helps the Fund and its partner UN agencies to advance the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
SPEAKERS

Lisa Kurbiel

Head of the Joint SDG Fund Secretariat, UN Joint SDG Fund

Belissa Rojas

IMM Lead, UNDP SDG Impact Team

Youri Siegel

Global Market Sustainable Structuring, BNP Paribas

MODERATOR

Priscilla Boiardi

Policy Analyst, Private Finance for Sustainable
Development, OECD

“Development does pay a dividend–and it is worth the collective effort to continue to attract blending opportunities.”

Youri Siegel
Global Market Sustainable Structuring,

BNP Paribas

PANEL DISCUSSION

The role of donors in driving the impact measurement and management agenda and standardization
SPEAKERS

Lasse Moller

Chief Consultant in the Green Diplomacy and Climate Office, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark

Christine Poursat

Head – Financial Systems, Agence Française de Développement (AFD), France

Paul Weber

Secrétaire de Légation, Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs, Luxembourg

MODERATOR

Lisa Hehenberger

Associate Professor, ESADE

“Standards play a key role to help ensure we invest wisely. SPTF here has a big role.”

Paul Weber, Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs, Luxembourg

closing remarks

Cerise+SPTF and OECD are both broad-based, multi-stakeholder organizations committed to transparency, accountability, and impact. Their respective standards—the Impact Standards for Financing Sustainable Development (OECD’s standards developed with UNDP) and Cerise+SPTF’s Universal Standards for Social and Environmental Performance Management—are highly complementary: OCED’s for impact investors and donors; Cerise+SPTF’s for financial service providers. “Finance United,” the first formal collaboration between OECD and Cerise+SPTF, had two goals: to inspire development finance leaders to take action and to specify which actions to take. Kerri-Ann Jones and Loïc de Cannière recapped the day’s lessons learned.
SPEAKERS

Loic De Cannière

Board Chair of SPTF, Founder and Chair
of Incofin Investment Management

Kerri-Ann Jones

Deputy Secretary General, OECD

“It is not by signing up to standards that organizations show their commitment, but through their implementation. We should encourage each other to become more ambitious in managing impact.”​

Kerri-Ann Jones,
Deputy Secretary General, OECD

CERISE+SPTF and OECD MEETING 2022

FINANCE UNITED: IMPACT INVESTORS, FINANCIAL SERVICE PROVIDERS, AND THE SDGs​

Cerise + SPTF #FinanceUnited meeting with OECD, UNDP & global partners.

(Photos provided by Andrew Wheeler)

 

CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE FULL PHOTO GALLERY