Businesses globally are facing challenges like climate change, geopolitical shifts, and the need for secure supply chains. This is particularly true for private enterprises in developing and emerging-market countries. DEG – Deutsche Investitions- und Entwicklungsgesellschaft mbH provides advisory and financing services to support transformation processes that help businesses become resilient and future-ready.
The recently presented Development Report for 2024 highlights DEG's impact: last year, its customers employed around three million people in developing countries. An example is Selecta One, a German plant producer operating in Kenya since 1999 with about 1,500 employees, most of whom are women. DEG has supported Selecta Kenya by promoting employee qualification measures and studying the switch to solar power.
DEG-supported customers generated 34 TWh of green electricity for over 49 million people last year. The evaluation of the 2024 portfolio reveals that 59% of these companies invest in innovative technologies or processes, while 83% contribute to community development through education and healthcare.
"Business sustainability management is proven to strengthen companies’ resilience and thus their performance," said DEG CEO Roland Siller during the report's publication. "We are deliberately focusing even more on promoting high-impact and climate-friendly investments to enable sustainable development with resilient business models."
The report also shows how private enterprises financed by DEG contribute to global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). About 86% of DEG customers work towards increasing economic productivity through innovations or offer access to financial services (SDG 8), while 80% focus on infrastructure, industrialization, or SME financing (SDG 9).
DEG measures its investments' development impacts using its own Development Effectiveness Rating (DERa) tool since 2017. DERa uses qualitative and quantitative indicators to assess outcomes annually.
DEG has refined its impact measurement tool within its focused strategy. The updated DERa 2.0 applied in the Development Report 2024 emphasizes transformations supported by DEG in areas such as resource protection, gender equality, and digitalization. Blue Orchard, an independent institute, positively confirmed this further development under the ‘Operating Principles for Impact Management (OPIM)’. DEG was among the first OPIM signatories which set standards for assessing development effectiveness in private investments.