Investing in the SDGs:
From Rhetoric to Reality

World leaders have made ambitious commitments to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Yet, securing enough resources remains a major challenge, with developing countries facing a gap estimated between US$ 2.5 to 3 trillion per year. What’s more, with governments and markets facing the massive financial challenge of helping countries address the immediate socio-economic impact of Covid-19, private capital will play a critical role in both addressing these needs and financing paths towards achievement of the SDGs. Financing is theoretically available, given the size, scale and level of sophistication of the global financial system—with gross world product and global gross financial assets estimated at over US$85 trillion and US$ 200 trillion respectively.

While the world has never been as rich as it is today, financial flows and wealth, mostly private, do not (or cannot) reach the geographies and people that need them the most. There is no lack of opportunities to fill the gap and reorient public and private investment towards the SDGs. Not only Governments, but also the financial markets and investors have positively reacted, by starting to demand and claim a stronger integration of the SDGs in public and private investment decisions. Despite opportunities, bottlenecks, and intensified risks—from climate change to the socio-economic fallout from the Covid-19 pandemic—persist. Most private investments are still not channeled towards sustainable development at the scale and speed required.

Organized at the margins of the United Nations General Assembly, the event will explore how the Joint SDG Fund can contribute to closing the financing gap to achieve the SDGs in developing countries by bringing together the UN system and the private sector. The Joint SDG Fund will showcase the results of its call for proposals on SDG Financing, that aims to support key initiatives that can leverage public and private financing to advance the SDGs.