The International Finance Corporation invites proposals for a US$500,000 grant competition designed to provide investors in emerging market equities with better research on companies' social and environmental performance.   The deadline for proposals is June 30, 2006.  The Request for Proposals (RFP) and additional information are available on the IFC website at:

http://www.ifc.org/ifcext/enviro.nsf/Content/SFMF_RFP_EmergingMarketEquities

The competition is open to a wide range of organizations, from mainstream sell-side analysts who want to deepen their expertise and product offering, to more specialized firms that cater to socially responsible and ethical investors in the market. The grants will support development of new information services geared to sustainable and responsible investment in developing country firms.  By making better information available, the goal is to facilitate an increase in high-quality, long-term investment in emerging markets from pension funds and other investors worldwide.

Winning proposals will be selected by IFC and a six-person panel of independent experts from the UN Global Compact, First State Investments, the World Resources Institute, the World Federation of Exchanges, the Association for Sustainable & Responsible Investment in Asia, and the Swiss consulting firm OnValues.

The winner(s) of the competition will be announced by the end of September 2006.

All enquiries to IFC on this project should be addressed by email to Capturingvalue@ifc.org