The Environmental and Social Challenges of Private Sector Projects: IFC's Experience

The importance of environmental and social issues in private sector finance has grown dramatically in recent years, and the last few years have been marked by a substantially growing awareness among investors, businesses, consumers,NGOs, and governments about the importance not only of financial aspects but also of environmental, social, and other developmental aspects of business in developing countries.The Environmental and Social Challenges of Private Sector Projects: IFC's Experience, the eighth in IFC's series Lessons of Experience, reports on the International Finance Corporation (IFC's) experience in addressing environmental and social issues while financing private sector projects. Drawing from a number of sources, including individual project reviews, internal and external surveys, project supervision reports, and internal databases,LOE 8 outlines where IFC has come from and the progress it has made since the first consideration of project-specific environmental issues in 1988. In addition to presenting the historical background of IFC's engagement in this area over the past decade,LOE 8 lays out the foundation for IFC's future approach toward sustainable development in the new millennium.The earlier publications in this series review IFC's experience in developing countries on other topics:Privatisation: Principles and Practice;Investment Funds in Emerging Markets;Leasing in Emerging Markets;Financing Private Infrastructure;Foreign Direct Investment;Financial Institutions, and Project Finance in Developing Countries. Since its founding in 1956, IFC has committed more than $31 billion of its own funds and $20 billion in additional syndicated funds for over 2,600 private sector companies in 140 developing countries.