Creating long-term development impact.
Creating long-term development impact.
SIFEM is Switzerland’s Development Finance Institution (DFI). DFIs invest in private sector businesses, banks, and projects in low- and middle-income countries to stimulate job creation and foster sustainable economic development.
DFIs, self-financing bodies and typically majority-owned by national governments, reinvest profits from their investments. Expansion of operations may necessitate additional capital infusion from the government.
Addressing today’s most pressing global challenges, like poverty alleviation and climate change mitigation, demands significant private investment. However, in many regions, businesses and projects may appear too risky for private investors. DFIs play a crucial role in bridging such financing gaps, as they are willing to assume higher commercial risks to support profitable businesses with positive developmental impacts. Concurrently, DFIs facilitate the mobilization of private capital from diverse sources such as commercial banks, investment funds, and institutional investors.
The Swiss Federal Council is responsible for defining SIFEM’s Strategic Objectives for a four-year period, which serve as guidelines for our investment activities.
The current objectives are defined in the Federal Council’s Strategic Objectives 2025-28 for SIFEM AG and are summarized below.
SIFEM provides financing that would not be accessible in sufficient amounts or on reasonable terms without public support. As an active investor, SIFEM normally sits on the advisory boards of the funds in which it invests.
SIFEM seeks to collaborate with private investors who are willing to co-invest additional resources.
SIFEM’s investment activities are guided by the principles of economic, social and environmental sustainability and responsible corporate governance. It can also provide technical assistance to facilitate investment in particularly challenging contexts.
SIFEM focuses its activities on the priority IC countries and regions and exploits synergies with the 2025–2028 International Cooperation Strategy.
The Federal Council expects SIFEM to achieve the following objectives:
The companies financed by SIFEM create decent jobs (SDG 8) help to alleviate poverty (SDG 1), and contribute to the development of sustainable industry, innovation and infrastructure (SDG 9).
By providing long-term capital to companies, SIFEM actively contributes to achieving international climate targets and the SDGs. In addition to climate action (SDG 13), affordable and clean energy (SDG 7), and responsible consumption and production (SDG 12) are also important objectives.
Underserved sections of society are given better access to important goods and services (SDG 10), with a focus on fostering the economic participation of women (SDG 5). SIFEM investments contribute to providing essential goods and services in the areas of health and well-being (SDG 3), quality education (SDG 4), and supply infrastructure (SDG 9).
SIFEM’s investments benefit a broad range of UN Sustainable Development Goals SDGs. It tracks its contribution to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals:
The Federal Council expects SIFEM to achieve the following objectives:
SIFEM ensures long-term self-financing by covering operating costs and in-vestment commitments through returns from existing investments and maintaining adequate cash reserves.
The Federal Council expects a positive overall result cumulated over the period 2025–2028. The aim is to achieve an average annual portfolio return of 2.5 per cent in US dollars over the last four years.
SIFEM has a corporate risk management system and a compliance management system based on the ISO standard.
Investment activities create sustainable partnerships with public and private financial actors (SDG 17).
As part of a new cooperation model between SIFEM and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), investments in the least developed countries (LDCs) and in fragile contexts will be further expanded.Â
SIFEM is a member of the Association of European Development Finance Institutions (EDFI), an alliance of 15 European bilateral development finance organisations.
EDFI’s mission is to foster cooperation by EDFI members amongst each other and with the European Union, improve member efficiency and effectiveness, provide them with common representation, develop and support joint policies, and secure financing opportunities. Furthermore, EDFI serves to inform the public and government stakeholders about the DFIs’ role and contribution to development.
Through our membership, we actively contribute to harmonising ESG and impact standards, fostering greater effectiveness and scalability in development finance. Collaboration with other DFIs and multilateral bodies is essential in achieving our strategic objectives, making this membership a vital component of our strategy.
SIFEM is a member of Swiss Sustainable Finance and the Global Impact Investing Network as part of its ecosystem building activities.Â
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