My Journey as a UN Volunteer with the Joint SDG Fund
When I began my UN Volunteer assignment with the UN Joint SDG Fund in January 2025, I stepped into a role filled with purpose and possibility. I knew I was joining a team committed to changing driving systems and accelerating SDG progress, but I did not realize how much the experience would expand my skills and reshape my understanding of development.
From Grants to Capital Gains: What We Learned About Making Finance Work for the SDGs
Over the past few years, the Joint SDG Fund tried something ambitious: use UN funds not as traditional grants, but as strategic investments to unlock much larger pools of private and commercial capital for sustainable development. In partnership with UN entities, we deployed $70 million across nine countries—from North Macedonia to Kenya, Zimbabwe to Indonesia—to test whether smart financial design could bend capital markets toward the SDGs. The results were striking. In Indonesia, the Fund helped structure over $5 billion in sustainable bonds.
