Focus on impact and resilience: DEG presents its Development Report for 2024

Businesses all over the world are confronted by challenges such as the impacts of climate change, upheaval in geopolitics and the need to secure supply chains. This applies in particular to private enterprises in developing and emerging-market countries. The advisory and financing services provided by DEG – Deutsche Investitions- und Entwicklungsgesellschaft mbH, for transformation processes that make businesses resilient and fit for the future are therefore in great demand.

DEG investments have a positive impact: three million jobs and green energy for 49 million people

The Development Report for 2024, which has now been presented, shows the impact of DEG’s commitment in detail: DEG’s existing customers, for example, employed around three million people in developing countries last year. One of them is the German plant producer Selecta one, which has been active with its subsidiary in Kenya since 1999, where it has a staff of around 1,500 people, most of them women. DEG has been supporting Selecta Kenya for many years, for example by promoting qualification measures for its employees or a study for switching its operations to solar power.

The customers supported by DEG produced 34 TWh of green electricity for over 49 million people last year. Further direct development impact of DEG customers after evaluation of the 2024 portfolio include that 59% of these companies invest in innovative technologies, products or processes and 83% of DEG customers contribute to community development, e.g. in education and healthcare.

“Business sustainability management is proven to strengthen companies’ resilience and thus their performance. We are deliberately focusing even more on promoting high-impact and climate-friendly investments to enable sustainable development with resilient business models. Together with our subsidiary DEG Impulse we offer our customers advisory and support services tailored to suit their needs,” said DEG CEO Roland Siller on the occasion of the publication of the report. “One example of this is the advice we provided to a South African commercial bank in the area of water security in order to strengthen resilience in its agricultural lending portfolio.”

Important contributions from private enterprises to global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

The Development Report 2024 also shows how the private enterprises financed by DEG contribute to the global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): 86% of DEG customers contribute to increasing economic productivity through innovations, create decent jobs or offer access to financial services (SDG 8). 80% of DEG customers work in infrastructure, promote industrialisation or offer access to finance, e.g. via SME financing (SDG 9).

The development impacts of their investments are a key control instrument for DEG, and have been measured using its own Development Effectiveness Rating (DERa) tool since 2017. The DERa uses qualitative and quantitative indicators to measure development outcomes for every DEG customer on an annual basis.

DEG's successful alignment with the Operating Principles for Impact Management externally verified

DEG has further developed its impact measurement tool in the context of its focused strategy. DERa 2.0, which has been applied for the first time for the Development Report 2024, includes a greater focus on customers' transformations with DEG's support, in areas such as resource protection, gender equality and digitalisation. This further development has now been positively confirmed by Blue Orchard, an external independent institute that has verified DEG's impact management in accordance with the ‘Operating Principles for Impact Management (OPIM)’. DEG was one of the first signatories of the OPIM, which set standards for business strategy, business development, structuring, management and assessment of development effectiveness for private investments.