The annual IDB Group Impact Report looks beyond financing volumes to understand what really matters: Are investments delivering results as expected? How are they improving lives? And what have we learned along the way? Here are three key takeaways from this year's report for IDB Invest.

 1. Most of Our Investments Are Achieving Their Intended Impact

Each year, as part of our end-to-end Impact Management Framework, we carry out final evaluations of investments that have matured or exited our portfolio to assess their performance and learn from these experiences.  

We aim for at least 65% to be rated positively – based on an assessment of their relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, and sustainability – as validated by the IDB Group’s independent Office of Evaluation and Oversight.  

In 2025, our three-year moving average of projects with positive ratings reached 69%, up from 63% in 2024. Focusing on longer-term trends provides a more reliable picture of performance, since results can fluctuate year-to-year depending on the mix of projects evaluated.

 2. Our Private Sector Investments Translate Into Real Outcomes for People and Businesses

The Impact Report also demonstrates how private sector investments are generating tangible economic benefits. Across sectors, IDB Invest financing has helped companies expand production, increase productivity, strengthen value chains, and create quality employment.  

For instance, looking at IDB Invest projects evaluated from 2020-2025, agribusinesses have supported more than 60,000 formal, permanent jobs, while manufacturing investments have supported nearly 18,000 direct jobs across multiple countries. Many of these firms achieved measurable productivity gains through operational improvements, technology adoption, and process innovation, helping boost their competitiveness.  

Through our projects with financial institutions evaluated since 2020, over 2.2 million MSMEs gained access to finance. Recent evidence shows that this increased access to credit can help drive job creation across the region.  

In parallel, our digital infrastructure investments are helping scale connectivity. For example, in Colombia, new or improved mobile broadband is now a reality for nearly one million vulnerable people in hard-to-reach corners of the country.  

 3. Scaling Impact Through the Private Sector Requires More Than Direct Financing  

It also calls for capital mobilization, public-private collaboration, and capacity building.

In 2025, the IDB Group achieved record levels of resource mobilization, securing $19.9 billion in third-party financing, including $7.7 billion mobilized by IDB Invest for private sector investments. By attracting additional capital alongside its own resources, IDB Invest can amplify development impact across the region.

The report also illustrates the value of long-term public-private collaboration through the experience of infrastructure public-private partnerships (PPP) in Colombia. Following decades of IDB support for public sector institutional and regulatory reforms, IDB Invest has become the leading investor in Colombia's road PPPs, financing nine concessions and helping mobilize significant private capital. So far, these projects have built or upgraded more than 1,200 kilometers of roads, benefiting over 30 million people through improved connectivity, safety, and reduced travel times, and are expected to generate an estimated $9.3 billion in net economic benefits.

Finally, a key lesson highlighted in the report is that achieving impact often depends on strengthening client capabilities through early, well-sequenced support. For example, IDB and IDB Invest technical assistance helped banks in Brazil and Costa Rica successfully issue sustainable bonds by building knowledge and capabilities before transactions were launched. By contrast, similar support provided at a later stage in a comparable operation was less effective because the client had less time to internalize the knowledge before issuance.  

Lessons like these are helping inform our increasing upstream work with countries and clients to help lay the foundation for future private sector investment.  

What’s Next?

The Impact Report is part of a broader impact management approach that helps us understand what works, why, and how to strengthen future investments. By continually measuring outcomes, learning from experience, and applying those insights across our portfolio, we can increase the benefits our operations deliver to people, businesses, and communities across Latin America and the Caribbean.