Impact Investment Assurance
Independent assurance of impact investment is a leading mechanism to help financial organisations avoid ‘impact washing’ by ensuring accountability to the different stakeholders, investors and investees engage with, as it validates impact claims through independent verification.
Unlike financial auditing, impact assurance not only verifies the accuracy and reliability of the metrics being claimed it also serves as a learning and improvement dynamic for both investors and investees. By improving their impact management practices investors will drive both accountability and increase performance. Experts argue impact assurance is as important as financial auditing and that only those verification service providers with the expertise in those areas should be providing assurance statements that confirm whether impact report information is complete, fair and credible.
The IFC operating principles include verification, and the UNDP SDG Impact Standards have an assurance framework. ERM CVS work under that framework to help our clients on their impact investment journey.
We view the assurance journey as a learning experience that drives improvement rather than reporting on what you are doing wrong. We partner with our clients to improve reporting and drive business performance along that journey.
