Griselda Gay Gloria-Santos l July 7, 2023 l The Manila Times
IN 2015, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (Unctad) estimated the global financing gap for developing countries to meet Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) relevant sectors by 2030 was $2.5 trillion per year. SDG relevant sectors include food, water, power and telecom, among the most basic human needs. This financing gap has increased by 40 percent during the pandemic to $3.5 trillion per year, according to the Asian Development Bank. Today, the gap continues to widen. According to a recent study by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the gap to reach the SDGs in developing countries increased by 56 percent to $3.9 trillion in 2020, and this continues to rise to $4.3 trillion per year toward the end of 2022.
Last month, I had the privilege to join some 50 delegates across the world. This was convened by the Salzburg Global Seminar in Salzburg, Austria, a nongovernment organization (NGO) that seeks to challenge future and current leaders to create a better world, through the support of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. This seminar tackled a very timely and challenging issue, how do we connect capital to enable communities/countries to meet the most basic needs like water and shelter.
Coming out of the seminar was a realization that despite the existence of so many well-intended entities, multilaterals, bilaterals, NGOs and private sector, the world remains challenged to let capital flow to key social infrastructures to the world’s most basic needs. One would think that with all these players, achievement of the sustainable development goals by 2030 is within reach.
The widening financing gap to meet SDG goals by 2030 was aggravated by so many factors which include, of course, the impact of Covid-19. Much of the gains made pre-Covid-19 toward the SDG was offset by the impact of the pandemic. Globally, there was a shift in focus from sustainability to recovery. Key question is how we go back to a mindset of sustainability.
During the Salzburg Global Seminar on mobilizing capital to communities, Kimberlee Cornett, director of Impact Investments at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, reiterated the quote by Audre Lorde, “There is no such thing as single-issue struggle because we do not live single-issue lives.” This was my “AHA!” moment. Looking at the SDGs, does it have to be a multiple choice? Do we need to prioritize one SDG over the other?
With all the global challenges today, we must maximize capital/financial resources to achieve all the SDGs. We look at the different entities, particularly NGOs, multilaterals, private sector and bilaterals, each by their own mandate are focused on one or a few SDGs, for the most part. There is nothing wrong with that as these entities are driven by the interests of their respective board/management or donors. This is just the way it has been for ages. If we continue to approach it in this manner, the 2030 SDGs will continue to be a moving target. It ought to be a collective and parallel action to meet the SDG goals by 2030. Quoting Erich Bam, founder of Infinit Impact and Salzburg Global Forum co-fellow, “Every challenge we face is different yet the way we effectively collaborate to face a challenge remains the same.”
An SDG-Purpose Driven Capital Mindset is needed to press forward. Yes, we have our own mandates and accountabilities to our boards, management and donors, but it is still possible to focus on those mandates and achieve a multiplier effect in reaching the SDG goals. For instance, an undertaking to provide quality education (SDG 4) for girls, like the Malala Fund, can lead to gender equality (SDG 5) in the long run, provide decent work and achieve economic growth for the community (SDG 8).
On the home front, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas is helping instill this mindset through its sustainable finance directives. At the global level, the Global Investors for Sustainable Development Alliance, composed of major financial institutions and corporations, was convened by the United Nations Secretary-General to deliver solutions that scale up private finance and investment to achieve the SDGs. These efforts ought to be replicated. With limited financial resources, every effort toward the SDG cannot be just a check in the box. It cannot be simply a Corporate Social Responsibility mindset. It ought to be an SDG-purpose-driven capital mindset that aims to be part of a big picture of achieving not one, but all the SDGs by 2030.
*** Griselda Gay Gloria-Santos is the regional director for Southeast Asia at Water.org, a global NGO co-founded by Matt Damon and Gary White. She holds an MBA degree from the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, USA. The opinion expressed herein does not necessarily reflect the views of these institutions, Water.org and Financial Executives Institute of the Philippines.