Climate action, economic growth highlighted in TDB impact report

In 2023, the Trade and Development Bank (TDB) contracted Genesis, for a consecutive year, to draft its Annual Sustainability and Development Impact Report for the 2022 year. Under the supervision of a task force, Genesis worked with the bank to develop the report.

The aim of the report was to identify TDB’s impacts, risks and opportunities for affected communities, society, the environment and the economy at large.

To understand these and explore the best way to describe them for an external audience, the Genesis team was guided by TDB’s Theory of Change and existing approaches to impact and sustainable development. We worked with the bank to understand and articulate progress made on its impact journey, including reviewing the bank’s portfolio, highlighting relevant awards and public recognition, and unpacking key impact themes and related case studies.

In the 2021 report, subtitled “Trade Finance and Project Infrastructure Finance to drive financial inclusion, resilient supply chains, climate finance and food security”, the three focus themes were:

• Supply chains, trade and infrastructure
• The social impacts of financial inclusion
• Climate change and food security.

In the 2022 report, we built on the previous year’s data and insights, retaining some of the previous report’s key aspects and content areas, but also expanding the details included. For example, in the 2022 report, we spent more time discussing the TDB Group structure and its relevance to impact, including introducing the Trade and Development Fund in detail.

The 2022 report was subtitled “Supporting African efforts on climate action, supply chains and food security, financial inclusion, economic resilience, and livelihoods”. It concentrated on four overarching impact themes and associated case studies:

• Climate action: enhancing energy security, energy access and contribution to just energy transition
• Support to supply chains and food security through trade finance
• Promoting financial inclusion, access to financial resources and value creation to spur economic growth
• Infrastructure financing to support economic resilience, livelihoods and sustainable economic value creation.

These projects helped Genesis work with TDB to articulate its efforts in service of its vision of advancing the economic development, integration and prosperity of the region while generating sustainable financial returns for reinvestment. They can be accessed at Publications - Trade and Development Bank (tdbgroup.org).