SDG Impact Update

Volume 06 | March 2021

Director's Note

Welcome to the latest edition of the SDG Impact newsletter.

My name is Fabienne Michaux – Fab to those who know me – and I am humbled and excited to step into the Director role at SDG Impact. I have worked with the team for the past two years as lead author of the Standards, and I look forward to taking Elizabeth’s vision forward in the year ahead.

The past month has been important for SDG Impact. Notably, we have:

Released the SDG Impact Standards for Bond Issuers (Version 1.0 ), following two rounds of public consultation which has had a significant influence on the Standards. This means we now have two of three sets of Standards out as Version 1.0 releases, with Bond Issuers joining the SDG Impact Standards for Private Equity Funds. Work on the standards guidance and the assurance protocols for Enterprises, PE Funds and Bond Issuers is well underway and we will keep you updated as things progress on those fronts.
Opened the final public consultation for the SDG Impact Standards for Enterprises. The consultation will be open until 31 May 2021. Feedback is sought from all interested stakeholders, including enterprises, investors, civil society, analysts, intermediaries, assurance providers, and policy makers.
The OECD UNDP Impact Standards for Financing Sustainable Development geared towards donors working with private sector partners deploying public sector funds were released after being approved by the DAC on March 17^th. OECD and UNDP collaborated on these standards to ensure harmonization with the SGD Impact Standards, in effect further strengthening the ability of different actors and different pools of capital to come together using a common language and approach to achieve the SDGs.
Launched a new training course on the SDG Impact Standards in partnership with Social Value International. The 11-hour, 5-day course has been designed specifically for UNDP Country Office staff, and will be offered in Asia Pacific, Africa, and Latin America regions in April/May.
Begun new SDG Investor Maps in Malawi, Tanzania, Gabon, Costa Rica, and Uruguay – with several more in the pipeline across all regions!
Put the finishing touches on the SDG Investor Platform, launching on 14 April at the SDG Investment Fair. Public and private stakeholders will partake in a panel discussion and discuss how the market intelligence data - captured in the SDG Investor Maps and presented in the SDG Investor Platform - is useful for investment decisions while impacting the SDGs. Register here!

I look forward to working with the team and all our great collaborators, partners and stakeholders to advance the vision of a world where all capital flows contribute positively to sustainable development – and a healthy, inclusive, and peaceful planet for all.

Best Wishes,

Fab

SDG Impact Facilitation

On 4 March 2021, UNDP Namibia, with support from SDG Impact, presented emerging Investment Opportunity Areas (IOAs) from the Namibia SDG Investor Map through a Country Spotlight session at the Africa Sankalp Summit 2021. The early results created appetite for more especially from the country’s national investment community. The Namibia SDG Investor Map was then validated by public and private stakeholders on 25 March 2021 and is currently being prepared for publication.

On 10 March 2021, UNDP Ghana in collaboration with the Business for Peace Foundation and the International Chamber of Commerce Ghana, launched its SDG Investor Map. With high level participation from Ghana’s Ministry for Finance, the event was attended by 130 participants and presented the identified priority areas and sample Investment Opportunity Areas (IOAs) that emerged from the research and consultation process. A recording of the event is available here.

On 8 March 2021, UNDP Turkey with the Istanbul International Center for Private Sector in Development in partnership with the Investment Office of the Presidency of Turkey, launched the Policy Dialogue Event at the Bosporus Summit in Istanbul. The event was held with the aim to create an avenue for a high-level public policy dialogue around Turkey’s agenda to mobilize SDG investments and accelerate SDG progress in the country. The event also facilitated discussion among policymakers and the private sector around how to establish an enabling ecosystem for SDG-anchored investments in Turkey.

Upcoming SDG Impact Facilitation Events

Please join us!

14 April 2021 at 7:30 – 8:45am (Eastern Daylight Time)

UNDP’s SDG Impact, in partnership with the Global Investors for Sustainable Development (GISD) Alliance, launches the SDG Investor Platform during a side event of the SDG Investment Fair 2021.

Public and private stakeholders will partake in a panel discussion and discuss how the market intelligence data - captured in the SDG Investor Maps and presented in the SDG Investment Platform - is useful for investment decisions while impacting the SDGs. The panel will also highlight new market building and facilitation activities to mobilize investment for sustainable development at scale.

SDG Impact Intelligence

SDG Investor Maps

Tanzania and Uruguay have officially started the journey of developing their SDG Investor Map, to be completed in 2021. Costa Rica has also kicked-off its SDG Investor Map process, and will pay particular attention to gender and marginalization issues and how they affect investments as part of their analysis.

After 5 months of hard work and with the support of PwC, Paraguay completed the development of their SDG Investor Map. The map identified 22 investment opportunity areas in seven sectors, with emphasis on Food and Beverage and Infrastructure sectors. Paraguay expects to share the findings from its map through an investor convening event to be held late April 2021.

With the Colombian Investor Map finalized, UNDP Colombia has been working along Bancolombia, the largest bank in the country, and SURA , the biggest insurance company, to flesh out four investment opportunities identified by the SDG Investor Map. Juan Carlos Mora, Bancolombia’s CEO has mentioned the bank’s commitment towards investing in the SDGs and in the specific opportunities uncovered by the Map.

In Sub-Saharan Africa, SDG Investor Maps are currently under development in Namibia and Malawi. UNDP Namibia, with its partners, has validated its findings and UNDP Malawi is working with the country’s Ministry of Finance to prepare for stakeholder consultations. Tanzania and Gabon are planning to conduct their SDG Investor Maps as well over the coming months.

In Asia, a new partnership with Temasek Trust is making it possible to develop 7 SDG Investor Maps in the ASEAN region. We will make an official announcement of the new partnership in April, stay tuned!

SDG Impact Management

SDG Impact Standards – Updates

SDG Impact Standards for Bond Issuers

UNDP has released Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Impact Standards for Bond Issuers (Version 1.0), following two rounds of public consultation which has had a significant influence on the Standards. The SDG Impact Standards set us on a path to achieve the SDGs by 2030 and put impact at the heart of every consumption, employment, business, and investment decision. The SDG Impact Standards for Bond Issuers are already being piloted in the market with New Development Bank’s (NDB) SDG bond issuance in China Interbank Bond Market in March 2021.

SDG Impact Standards for Enterprises

UNDP has kicked off the final public consultation for finalizing the SDG Impact Standards for Enterprises – from 31 March through May 2021, with an anticipated Version 1.0 release of the Standards by 30 June 2021. Feedback is sought from all interested stakeholders, including enterprises, investors, civil society, analysts, intermediaries, assurance providers, and policy makers. R&I, the domestic rating agency in Japan, integrated key elements of the Enterprise Standards into their analysis of the city of Kobe’s plan and progress towards the SDGs.

This consultation period will include a dedicated working group for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) to raise their awareness of the SDG Impact Standards and create MSME-specific guidance to encourage global adoption. If you know any organizations who are interested in joining this focused MSME Working Group, please reach out to amanda.feldman@undp.org.

The SDG Impact team has also updated the mapping of the Enterprise Standards to the SDG Disclosure (SDGD) Recommendations, which is available here.

OECD UNDP Impact Standards for Financing Sustainable Development

The OECD UNDP Impact Standards for Financing Sustainable Development geared towards donors working with private sector partners deploying public sector funds were released after being approved by the DAC on 17 March. OECD and UNDP collaborated on these Standards to ensure harmonization with the SGD Impact Standards, in effect further strengthening the ability of different actors and different pools of capital to come together using a common language and approach to achieve the SDGs.

Self-Assessment Against the SDG Impact Standards

In March 2021, the IMP+ACT Alliance (ICS) added a new functionality in its platform which allows to have a high-level self-assessment against the SDG Impact Standards. You can partake in the high-level self-assessments, which are now live in the ICS, here.

Training and Education

The UNDP SDG Impact team in partnership with the Social Value International, is pleased to launch a new training course on the SDG Impact Standards. The 11-hour, 5-day course accompanies the Standards and has been designed specifically for UNDP Country Office staff to develop their capacity to be better able to support investors, bond issuers and enterprises in channelling capital towards sustainable development and the SDGs.

This virtual course with interactive sessions is split into five core modules that require 11 hours of live participation from each participant. Training for individuals in LATAM will take place the week commencing 26 April 2021. Trainings in other regions will be announced in the coming weeks.

The team led by Cathy Clark at the CASE Centre at Duke University are progressing well on development of the online IMM training course that is on track for public release later this year and will be available free of charge on Coursera. We had a run through of content for Module 3 of 5 this week and it’s looking great!

Independent Assurance

The SDG Impact Team has established the Assurance Design and Implementation Working Group to guide us as we develop assurance protocols, accreditation requirements, quality control measures, templates, etc. The working group comprises globally renowned experts from accounting bodies, assurance providers and standard setters, and academia. It is chaired by Carol Adams.

For more information, please visit our SDG Impact website and/or email SDGImpact.standards@undp.org.

Team Speaking and Knowledge Building Engagements

With the SDG Impact Standards and Investor Maps underway, the SDG Impact team members are regularly engaged as invited speakers at impact investing knowledge-exchange and knowledge-building events and engagements:

Maria Laura Tinelli , Advisor – Impact Investment Markets & Engagement Lead Latin America, presented the work of SDG Impact and the Enterprise Standards in a corporate sector master class hosted by the Dominican Republic Country Office and the Dominican Republic Catholic University on 16 March 2021. The event was distinguished with high-level participation of the corporate sector in Dominican Republic.

Carol Adams, Technical Expert – Assurance, Reporting & SDG Related Disclosures, chaired a panel discussion at the Economist Sustainability Week Agenda | Sustainability Week (economist.com) on Quality not Quantity: Generating Good Data, on 25 March 2021.

Maria Laura Tinelli presented the work of SDG Impact and the Enterprise Standards in the launch of the impact investment market report in Chile and Uruguay, with high attendance form key stakeholders from these markets (200 and 95 people respectively), on 25 and 26 March 2021.

Fabienne Michaux, Belissa Rojas and Cathy Clark were panelists on Impact Entrepreneur’s Building an Impact Economy Webinar Series, SDG Impact Standards: A Significant Breakthrough for Impact Management on 8 April 2021.

Carol Adams co-authored a research article Accountability and Governance in Pursuit of Sustainable Development Goals: Conceptualising how governments create value, which sets out the national accountability & governance structures required to track a nation’s progress on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

Maria Laura Tinelli also engaged with SDG Impact Bonds second opinion providers in Latin America to inform about the progress on the development of the Standards and the upcoming assurance seal.

Get involved / Work with us

Are you interested in being a part of an Implementation Working Group for the second consultation of the Enterprise Standards?

Do you want to co-host a webinar on the Standards for your organisation or network? Get in touch via email.