Scaling Finance for the Sustainable Development Goals is part of a broad agenda of the United Nations Global Compact to continue secure private capital for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The goal is to inspire major players in the investment value chain (including UN Global Compact participants and other multinational companies) to build a market for mainstream SDG investments, with enough scale, liquidity and diversification to attract large institutional investors and finance a broad set of private and public-sector activities in support of the SDGs.
In this publication, we focus on financial innovation for SDG investments that do not fit the criteria typically required for direct financing by portfolio or institutional investors. We explore how corporate and financial intermediation — including FDI — can help scale private finance in key geographies and sectors for the SDGs. This includes providing access to finance in countries with less developed financial markets or for SDG solutions that are too small or illiquid to attract portfolio investors.
