Improving business standards

Responsible investment has always been core to CDC’s mandate. No longer a direct investor, CDC now promotes sound business practices through its fund managers. Across our portfolio of companies, fund managers take a long-term stake in helping companies improve environmental, social and corporate governance standards (ESG). We insist on this because we know that it’s critical to ensure that development doesn’t come at the expense of a damaged environment and poor conditions for local workers. We also insist on improving standards because we know that they help to build higher value businesses that can grow into world-beaters.

We promote strong ESG practices across nearly 800 companies located in some of the world’s most challenging business environments. Fatalities happen rarely but when they do we take them extremely seriously. We investigate their causes and work closely with our fund managers to remedy the risk and prevent reoccurrence. If we find a systemic issue is affecting safety, we work in partnership with our fund managers to uncover the root of the issue and make immediate improvements. To learn more about this, click here.

CDC and its fund managers have helped companies across Africa introduce HIV/Aids programmes for employees, mining companies improve environmental safeguards, service providers enforce minimum wage payments, and food retailers and producers meet international food safety standards.

In the 2009 evaluation results on ESG performance, 73% of evaluated portfolio companies had ESG issues at the time of investment. 83% of these had observed and reported ESG improvements since CDC's investment. This is one key impact that CDC’s, long-term approach to investment can have.

To see how CDC aims to be at the forefront of international standards for responsible investment go to our new Investment Code. To learn more about how we help deliver improved business standards, go to our section on Businesses we back.