CDC’s investments in low-income and fragile states
The UK’s multi-billion pound development finance institution did not do enough to maximise the impact of its UK aid investments.
Read the approach paper
- PDF download (102 KB)
- Published: 29 May 2018
Our approach
We set out to cover the period from 2012 to 2018. The review explores how well CDC has reoriented its investment approach and portfolio to achieve development impact in low-income and fragile states, while still delivering its intended financial return. It builds on previous parliamentary and National Audit Office (NAO) reviews of CDC. Our primary focus was on CDC’s ability to deliver results in low-income and fragile states.
For this review we conducted a literature review, a review of CDC’s corporate processes, a review of six investment teams and in-depth reviews of 19 investments, as well as four country visits where we conducted interviews with investee company staff, visited company sites and interviewed stakeholders.
Review questions
Through a combination of a literature review, corporate and investment team reviews and country case studies, we assessed the following questions:
- Does CDC have a credible approach to achieving development impact and financial returns in low-income and fragile states?
- How effective are CDC’s investments in low-income and fragile states?
- How well does CDC learn and innovate?