A shift from aid to investment
Poverty, inequality, environmental degradation, climate change—the world faces enormous challenges. The European Investment Bank helps developing countries find innovative solutions to promote sustainable growth, reduce poverty and inequality, and improve lives.
For more than 40 years, the EIB has been the European Union’s international development bank. It’s important for the EU to have a bank that promotes its principles, values and objectives and contributes to stable growth in the countries beyond its borders. That’s because connections between the economies of Europe and the rest of the world are increasingly close, and events around the globe, such as forced displacement and climate change, can have a significant effect within Europe itself.
At the EIB, we believe international cooperation ensures that the interests of the poorest countries and people are at the centre of global decision-making and action. With our international partners, we are supporting a shift from aid to investment—and from poverty to prosperity
Our impact
We work hard on the ground to ensure that our investments have a major impact. We fight deforestation and climate change. We create good jobs in rural areas and improve journey times on sustainable urban transport. We provide clean energy, clean water and sanitation. Our new projects outside the EU in the last five years (2014-2018) will result in
41.1 million
people
benefit from clean water and sanitation
45.3 million
households
benefit from electricity
5.8 million tonnes
of CO2 equivalent
greenhouse gas emissions avoided
2.3 million
jobs
sustained in small businesses and mid-cap firms
We improve lives outside the European Union
We invest massive resources each year outside the EU in Southern Neighbours, Africa, Pre-Accession countries, Eastern Neighbours, Caribbean and Pacific countries, Asia and Latin America.
Concrete solutions
Effective solutions for today’s most pressing global challenges
Safe drinking water
Challenge: In Cambodia, only 1 in 4 people use safely managed drinking water that’s available on premises, when needed and free of contamination
Solution: A water treatment plant financed by the EIB provides clean water to 2.5 million Cambodians
Access to finance for women
Challenge: Women are overrepresented among the world’s unbanked. About 980 million women have no account, 56% of unbanked adults globally
Solution: Sheinvest, a new EIB initiative to mobilise €1 billion of investment for better access to finance for African women
Our goals
We emphasise areas critical to sustainable development.
Climate action
We dedicate at least 35% of our loans outside the EU to projects that have a climate action component.
That’s a major contribution to these sustainable development goals:
Resilient infrastructure
We build transport infrastructure, energy efficiency and renewable energy infrastructure, and social and urban infrastructure.
A commitment to these sustainable development goals:
Economic resilience, growth and jobs
Our Economic Resilience Initiative and our migration package for Africa, Caribbean and the Pacific support the countries of origin, transit and destination of migrants from North Africa, the Middle East, the Western Balkans and Sub-Saharan Africa.
Our programmes advance these sustainable development goals:
Gender equality
Equality and women’s economic empowerment drive inclusive and sustainable development.
We invest in women’s entrepreneurship. We work to promote gender equality and protect the rights of women.
Our projects reinforce these sustainable development goals:
In the spotlight
Meet the people behind our projects.
For the past five decades, we have delivered EU investments in Africa and around the world.
We have built significant development expertise and an increasing set of banking instruments to support private sector development in fragile economies.
Our financing and advisory tools
Innovative finance and expertise for people, planet and prosperity
Loans, guarantees, equity investments for clients of all sizes
Technical and financial expertise for our clients
A lasting impact in developing countries
Publications
How our projects tackle global challenges