ICFA's motivations to participate in IMS Luxembourg’s activities:
IMS's mission to inspire responsible strategies and practices across three key areas—people, planet, and prosperity—through the collaboration of private, public, and associative stakeholders aligns perfectly with our mission. The International Climate Finance Accelerator (“ICFA”, https://www.icfa.lu/) is an independent non-profit association, set up as a public-private partnership by the Luxembourgish State and a dozen private sector partners with deep experience in impact finance. The ICFA runs a multi-year acceleration program for emerging fund managers focused on climate impact, and we are in process to launch a new program centred on social impact finance at the end of 2024. We contribute to SDG 17 “Partnership for the Goals” as our primary focus, while the fund managers we support aim to launch funds focused on all SDGs depending on their respective investment and impact strategies.While we seek to catalyse more financing to flow to projects that are creating positive contribution to solve climate and social issues globally, we also aim to run our activities in a responsible manner. Becoming a member of IMS Luxembourg, participating in IMS activities, and collaborating with other members would provide us with tools, knowledge, and connections to help us amplify our initiatives, forge strategic alliances, and increase visibility. We would greatly benefit from IMS's expertise, diverse perspectives, and up-to-date information to keep our activities in line with sustainable practices.
ICFA's Sustainable Development Policy:
The ICFA's mission is to advance climate finance by empowering emerging fund managers specializing in the field, and nurturing tomorrow's climate finance leaders. Our objectives are to boost the number of climate investment funds and investments into climate mitigation and adaptation (SDG 17 and SGD 13). Our fund managers' impact focus revolves mostly around climate action (SDG 13), zero hunger (SDG 2), affordable and clean energy (SDG 7), responsible consumption and production (SDG 12), life below water (SDG 14), and life on land (SDG 15). Future developments of our initiative will see an expansion towards further social impact.Concurrently, the ICFA's sustainable policy is underpinned by key initiatives:1. Environmental, social, and governance principles: Through integration of ESG principles, the ICFA minimizes its environmental footprint and fosters social inclusion. We achieve this by providing training and coaching, fostering our community, and promoting diversity and inclusion among our program participants. Governance principles ensure integrity, respect, accountability, transparency, collaboration, and continuous improvement at all levels.2. Theory of Change and meticulous selection process: The ICFA’s theory of change involves raising awareness of climate and social issues, promoting innovative impact solutions, and fostering partnerships between public and private funders. The ICFA's selection process meticulously chooses fund projects with the highest potential for success in combating climate change and solving social issues, based on recognized principles and standards.3. Impact measurement and management: The ICFA provides direct support to fund managers with impact training, measurement, and reporting tools, facilitating SDG outcomes. We collect and analyse impact data to create an impact report for our stakeholders.Through these initiatives, the ICFA's sustainable policy aims to empower future impact finance leaders and drive significant impact in climate action and social inclusion. However, we recognize that, internally, we still have much improvement to implement to run our own operations in a sustainable manner. This motivates us to join the IMS Community and adopt best practices from a driven and supporting community in Luxembourg.
ICFA's Sustainable Development actions and frameworks:
At ICFA, we have implemented several actions to promote sustainable development:
1. Climate Finance Program: We provide comprehensive financial and technical assistance to emerging fund managers with a primary focus on climate action. Our support encompasses initiatives aimed at reducing carbon emissions, advancing renewable energy adoption, and fostering sustainable agricultural practices. To date, we have backed 34 emerging impact fund managers spanning seven cohorts in their climate-centric endeavors.
2. Social Impact Finance Program: We are introducing a pioneering program centred on social finance; our initiative aims to empower emerging impact fund managers in developing projects that champion three pillars:- Decent Work and Social Empowerment: Projects focused Gender Equality, Employment Generation, Socioeconomic Development, etc. - Adequate Living Standards and Wellbeing: Projects focused on Affordable Housing, Access to Healthcare, Access to Education, Food Security, etc. - Inclusive and Sustainable Communities: Projects focused on Human Rights, Social Inclusion, Access to Affordable Basic Infrastructure (Water, Sanitation, Transport, Power), etc.
3. Promoting Collaboration: We foster a culture of collaboration and knowledge sharing among our ecosystem, culminating in our annual Impact Finance Forum. Additionally, we are establishing Communities of Practice around Financing Emerging Fund Managers and Climate Adaptation and Resilience, to assemble different actors in the greater ecosystem to collaborate and jointly develop knowledge and best practices. Finally, we partner with many stakeholders in impact finance to mobilize more capital for investments into companies and projects that are focused on climate action and social impact.
4. Training and Capacity Building: Dedicated to integrating sustainable practices into fund managers' investment portfolios, we provide a diverse range of training sessions, workshops, and e-learning modules. We provide these benefits to all eligible applicants to our programme, seeking to build the market and disseminate knowledge around impact fund management.