Our mission
CDC is the UK’s development finance institution. Founded 70 years ago, they invest in the most challenging markets of Africa and South Asia with the aim of supporting economic development. CDC has net assets of £5.1bn, with over 1300 growing businesses in their portfolio. Last year CDC committed over £1 billion of capital across 50 transactions. CDC is wholly owned by the UK government, who has committed a further £3.5bn of capital for CDC to deploy over the next two to three years. They are expanding their presence in Africa and South Asia with further new offices openings planned.
CDC take an entrepreneurial approach to investment. They think innovatively about ways to deploy their capital, attract and mobilise other investors, and drive transformational impact. Primarily, CDC invests to achieve impact and a financial return which is reinvested into more businesses. Their aim is to create jobs and accelerate economic prosperity and focus on sectors that will do this; manufacturing, food and agriculture, infrastructure, financial institutions, construction, health and education. CDC works with likeminded ambitious people who are primarily motivated by their mission to deliver impact. They are currently a growing team of over 400 and place immense value on diversity within the organisation.
Team and role overview
Purpose
Responsibilities
The role is focussed on ensuring effective and high-quality impact management consistent with CDC’s Impact Framework for the Infrastructure portfolio. The Manager will form part of the Impact Management Leadership team and will be given oversight responsibility for the Infrastructure portfolio. The position will be expected to play an active role in the investment process, working with investees to enhance their impact and supporting the development of the wider Development Impact team. Specific responsibilities will be driven by priorities and the dynamic needs of the team at the time, but are expected to include the following:
Our cultural values
We look for team members who aspire, as we do, to work at our best and to be:
CDC is committed to diversity and inclusion and welcomes all applicants regardless of age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex or sexual orientation.
Background
Skills
CDC is the world’s oldest development finance institution (DFI) founded in 1948. Their mission is to 'support the building of businesses throughout Africa and South Asia, to create jobs and make a lasting difference to people’s lives in some of the world’s poorest places.'
Between 2004 and 2011, CDC’s strategy was to provide capital to businesses in emerging markets through private equity funds. Since 2012, they have been through an exciting transformation, and now provide capital in all its forms, investing both directly and through fund managers that are aligned with their vision.
CDC aims to invest in countries where the private sector is weak and jobs are scarce and in sectors where growth leads to jobs. They assess every investment for its potential to create jobs and take a commercial approach to investing and lending activities because development impact is well correlated with strong financial performance. However, as a DFI, they can also take a flexible and patient approach because value creation in their markets often takes many years to materialise.
CDC is wholly owned by the UK Government through the Department for International Development (DFID) and plays a key role in DFID’s private sector strategy to alleviate poverty. They invest from their balance sheet and it is a measure of CDC’s high quality investment processes that despite investing in regions of the world that are typically considered very high risk, they have received no new capital from government since 1995 and remain self-funding. CDC invests in a number of ways: