ImpactAlpha, March 1 — The United Nations’ Joint SDG Fund is aiming to bring together Wall Street and the growing focus on ESG, impact investing and investor interest around the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals to unlock private capital for blended finance deals to advance the SDGs.
The fund has made $223 million in SDG investments across 112 countries to date. It is selecting Fiji, Indonesia, Malawi and Uruguay from a pool of over 100 countries, which sent proposals to secure catalytic grants to invest in reaching the SDGs by 2030. The fund said the four selected countries are expected to leverage an additional $4.7 billion in additional funding to reach their goals.
Fiji will use the public-private funding to protect its coastal reefs and ocean life for the local communities that rely on them for survival; Indonesia will support the creation of women-led small businesses, create new funding solutions to fight climate change and accelerate its transition to renewable energy; Malawi aims to create jobs and support agri-small businesses to reduce poverty, hunger and inequality; Uruguay will focus on accelerating the transition to renewable energy across different sectors while reducing poverty, and create access to cleantech innovation in the country.
Blended finance
Blended finance has gained significant momentum in the past few years, as more early stage and late stage blended finance deals are attracting the attention, and ultimately capital, of investors to advance the SDGs.