MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Joint Impact Indicators (JIIs) Bridge HIPSO, IRIS+ to Streamline Investors’, Investees’ Measurement of Gender Equality, Job Creation, Climate Impacts

A group of investors recently launched the Joint Impact Indicators (JIIs), a framework for increasing “harmonization in the way that impact investors measure and report on the effects of their investments.” The indicators, which were developed by The Global Impact Investing Network, a US-based nonprofit, and the World Bank Group’s International Finance Corporation, focus on three areas: gender, jobs and climate. The JIIs build on the Harmonized Indicators for Private Sector Operations (HIPSO) and the Impact Reporting and Investment Standards Plus (IRIS+) Catalogue of Metrics, two sets of indicators that require investees to report similar information in different ways. The goal is to reduce the reporting burden on investees while increasing the availability of comparable data on the progress that investments make toward social and environmental goals.

Amit Bourit, CEO of the Global Impact Investing Network (GIIN), said “Rigorous, credible impact measurement and management are fundamental to the integrity of the impact investment market…. This is crucial, because the challenges the world faces are far too urgent for capital to underperform.”

Among those endorsing the JIIs is EDFI (European Development Finance Institutions), a nonprofit group of 15 development finance institutions with total commitments of EUR 46 billion (USD 55 billion) as of 2019.

The Global Impact Investing Network (GIIN), a US-based association of non-profit investors, was established in 2009. Its 57-member Investors’ Council works to increase “the level and effectiveness of capital that is supporting market-based solutions to social and environmental problems.” Its total membership numbers about 300.

By Tejas Gumudavelly, Research Associate

Sources and Additional Resources

Joint Impact Indicators
https://www.edfi.eu/wp/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/2021-03-15-IRIS-JII_R14.pdf

IFC press release
https://pressroom.ifc.org/all/pages/PressDetail.aspx?ID=26260

EDFI press release
https://www.edfi.eu/news/leading-impact-investors-make-progress-toward-harmonised-impact-measurement-with-release-of-joint-indicators/

GIIN homepage
https://thegiin.org/

IFC homepage
https://www.ifc.org/

IRIS+ homepage
https://iris.thegiin.org/

HIPSO homepage
https://indicators.ifipartnership.org/

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