As multilateral development banks (MDBs) and development finance institutions (DFIs), we share a common purpose: to support development in emerging markets and developing economies. Private finance is an increasingly important part of how we do this, and we are committed to measuring our contribution to it credibly, consistently, and transparently. Today we are releasing the recently revised and expanded MDB Joint Methodologies, prepared by the MDB Task Force on Mobilization and endorsed by all 30 member institutions.[i]
These changes are in response to the G20’s call, first set out in the 2024 Viewpoint Note, to “revise the joint MDB measurement methodology to expand the coverage of mobilization.” [ii]
These revised methodologies provide a fuller picture of how our member institutions make private finance available for development. Recognizing that private finance for development comes in various forms, the Task Force’s enhanced approach to estimating MDBs’ impact on development finance goes beyond measuring mobilization alone to include two additional indicators (one still in progress), distinguished by the risk investors take, the timing of the financing, and whether an MDB/DFI also finances the activity:
Mobilization estimates the financing made available for an MDB/DFI project for which the MDB/DFI also provides financing or guarantees, or for which it provides qualifying advisory or transaction support activities.
Generation is a new indicator that estimates the financing made available for MDBs/DFIs to use for development activities and/or to support their development mandates based on the institution’s balance sheet, credit rating, or other attributes, irrespective of the risk of any recipient or financed activity.
And still in development, an approach for Catalyzation that aims to provide a common methodology for all members to estimate the private financing made available by private investors because of MDB/DFI or MDB/DFI-financed activities that go beyond own account or mobilization.
These indicators span the full arc of our work, from the first dollar raised to the investment that follows long after our interventions end. Together they can tell the full story of how MDBs and DFIs make finance available to meet development priorities.
The MDB Joint Methodologies package released today comprises an overview of the history and concepts of MDB/DFI measurement of private finance; the updated Mobilization Reference Guide; a new Generation Reference Guide which introduces this new methodology; and a Catalyzation Progress Note setting out where work on that indicator stands. These will underpin our future annual joint reporting.
These materials include the first update to the joint mobilization methodology since 2018, which sets out enhanced principles that better define the flows that count as mobilized; includes expanded attribution rules for transactions in which several institutions participate, to help minimize double counting; introduces new indicators for public and portfolio-based mobilization; and clearly delineates the definition of mobilizing advisory services.
Furthermore, these revisions to the joint mobilization methodology help incentivize and capture the results of innovation, and respond to calls from shareholders to expand the use of originate-to-distribute models, securitization mechanisms, MDB guarantees, risk-transfer tools, and foreign exchange hedging, all of which have new or expanded guidance in the updated joint methodology.[iii]
Meeting today's development challenges will require private finance at a scale that MDBs and DFIs cannot deliver alone. Measuring our contribution credibly is the foundation for delivering it. We look forward to engaging with our shareholders, clients, investors, and partners on these new and revised methodologies in the months ahead.
Issued by the members of the MDB Task Force on Mobilization.
[i] As of October 2026, the Task Force was composed of the following MDBs and DFIs: the African Development Bank (AfDB), the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), the Development Bank of Latin America and the Caribbean (CAF), the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), the Association of European Development Finance Institutions (EDFI), the European Investment Bank (EIB Group), the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), the Inter-American Investment Corporation (IDB Invest), the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the International Islamic Trade Finance Corporation (ITFC), the Islamic Corporation for the Insurance of Investment and Export Credits (ICIEC), the Islamic Corporation for the Development of the Private Sector (ICD), the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB), the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA), and the World Bank (WB). EDFI membership comprises: BII (United Kingdom), BIO (Belgium), Cofides (Spain), DEG (Germany), Finnfund (Finland), FMO (The Netherlands), Impact Fund Denmark (Denmark), Norfund (Norway), OeEB (Austria), Proparco (France), SIFEM (Switzerland), Simest and CDP Development Finance (Italy), SOFID (Portugal), and Swedfund (Sweden)
[ii] G20 Roadmap Towards Bigger, Better and More Effective MDBs, Action 4.3
[iii] G20 Roadmap Towards Bigger, Better and More Effective MDBs, Actions 4.2, 5 and 9.
