30 business leaders join UN push to scale up private sector investment for sustainable development

António Guterres calls on key business leaders to step up to the challenge of financing the SDGs 

UNITED NATIONS, New York, 16 October 2019 — The United Nations announced today that 30 influential leaders from the corporate world will work together over the next two years in a bid to free up trillions of dollars from the private sector to finance the Sustainable Development Goals.

Convened by Secretary-General António Guterres, the Global Investors for Sustainable Development (GISD) Alliance is co-chaired by Oliver Bäte, CEO of Allianz, and Leila Fourie, CEO of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange. The UN Global Compact is one of the organizing partners of the Alliance.

Several companies taking part in the Alliance are also participants of the UN Global Compact. These companies include Allianz SE, Aviva, Banco Santander, Bank of America, Citigroup, Consejo Mexicano de Negocios, Emirates Environmental Group, Enel S.p.A, Infosys, Investec Group, PIMCO, Safaricom, Standard Chartered Bank, SulAmerica, TDC Group A/S and UBS Group AG. The full list of GISD member companies and their representatives is available here.

“We face widening inequality, increased devastation from conflicts and disasters and a rapidly warming Earth. These leaders have seized our sense of urgency, recognizing that our pace must be at a run, not a crawl,” Guterres said. “They are committing to cooperate across borders, across financial sectors and even with their competitors, because it is both ethical and good business sense to invest in sustainable development for all people on a healthy planet.”

The High-Level Dialogue on Financing for Development held during the recent UN General Assembly brought to attention the urgent need for increasing Government spending on crucial sectors, such as health, education, infrastructure, and climate change. Most developed countries have not met their commitments to official development assistance, while factors like poverty, corruption and tax evasion limit domestic resources in developing countries.

The development finance needs are estimated at trillions of dollars per year, and even if funding from all public sources is maximized, there will still be a significant shortfall, making financing from the private sector imperative.

The UN’s research suggests that there is no shortage of money from the private sector which could be invested in sustainable development. However, a combination of factors, including the policy environment, incentive structures and institutional conditions, tend to discourage the kind of long-term commitment that is needed.

“The establishment of the GISD Alliance acknowledges the scale of the challenges we face collectively and the role that the finance sector has to play in meeting these challenges,” said Fourie. “Exchanges are a vital part of the financing ecosystem — promoting relevant disclosure, enabling effective price discovery, and ultimately mobilizing funds to productive ends. We all have much work to do, and the time to start is now.”

The Alliance aims to use their expertise, influence and business acumen in devising ways to stimulate long-term investment in development and speed up progress towards achieving the SDGs.

Over the next two years, the group will:

• Deliver solutions to unlock long-term finance and investment in sustainable development both at company and system-wide levels;

• Mobilize additional resources for countries and sectors most in need;

• Find ways to increase the positive impact of business activities; and

• Align business practices with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

The move comes amidst a growing recognition in the corporate community that the continued success of their companies is inextricably linked to a sustainable future for the world.

The UN Secretary-General has established a timeline for actionable results over the life of the Alliance. Coordinated by the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs, the GISD Alliance will be supported by UN-supported networks, including the UN Global Compact, PRI, UNEP FI, UNCDF, UNDP and the World Bank Group.

Since 2018, the UN Global Compact Action Platform on Financial Innovation for the SDGs has worked to inspire companies to develop innovative private financial instruments that have the potential to direct private finance towards critical sustainability solutions. Outputs from this Action Platform include technical guides on SDG bonds, foreign direct investment and public-private partnerships, and corporate finance for the SDGs. This work sets the foundation for the launch of the UN Global Compact Chief Financial Officer taskforce for SDG finance in 2020, which will engage companies and investors to integrate sustainability into corporate financing strategies and functions.

Background:

• The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, adopted by all United Nations Member States in 2015, provides a blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet, now and into the future. At its heart are the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which recognize that ending poverty and other deprivations must go hand-in-hand with strategies that improve health and education, reduce inequality and spur economic growth — all while tackling climate change and working to preserve our oceans and forests.

• The GISD Alliance is part of the UN’s strategy on financing for sustainable development, informed by the Addis Ababa Action Agenda. The Action Agenda provides a global framework for financing sustainable development by aligning all financing flows and policies with economic, social and environmental priorities. It includes a set of policy actions, with measures that draw upon all sources of finance, technology, innovation, trade, debt and data, in order to support achievement of the Sustainable Development.

Contact:

Leila Puutio
UN Global Compact
Email: puutio@unglobalcompact.org
Phone: +1 646-884-7523

Rita Ann Wallace
UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs
Email: rita.wallace@un.org
Phone: +1 516 707 5570