Catalytic technical assistance can improve the underlying market conditions for private investment in sustainable development. Continue reading How catalytic technical assistance can help unlock development finance
The Third UN Ocean Conference (UNOC-3) made a clear case for putting the ocean at the centre of the sustainable development agenda. While this should be celebrated, much work remains to translate UNOC-3’s achievements into real accomplishments. Continue reading The Third UN Ocean Conference: Reflections and the road ahead
By Benjamin Kumpf, Head of the OECD Innovation for Development facility
As we are all too aware, the world is off track to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030. Progress will require major changes in policy, regulation, infrastructure, procurement, and planning, as well as social and behavioural shifts. And it will require a major increase in financing: the UN’s Financing for Sustainable Development Report 2024 puts the SDG investment and financing gaps at between USD 2.5 trillion and USD 4 trillion annually.
Continue reading “Can a focus on scaling help transform development co-operation?”
By Francesco Savoia, Research Fellow, Università degli Studi di Milano, Ioannis Bournakis, Associate professor, SKEMA Business School, Mona Said, Professor, The American University in Cairo, and Antonio Savoia, Reader, University of Manchester; Nonresident Senior Fellow, UNU-WIDER
The inclusion of income redistribution in the UN Sustainable Development Goals, as part of SDG Goal 10 aiming to reduce inequality within and among countries, reflects an increasing realisation that addressing inequalities is intrinsically important, as well as instrumental to human development and to a number of other development outcomes through a variety of channels. But how should we measure and monitor progress in reducing inequalities? Here we argue that looking at the sub-national level may be important.
Continue reading “Reducing inequalities: how should we measure and monitor SDG Goal 10?”
By Gijs de Vries, Visiting Senior Fellow at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE); former member of the Dutch Government and former board member of the European Cultural Foundation
In 2015, world leaders pledged to limit global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels. They also promised to eradicate poverty and hunger, to secure peace and prosperity, to protect the planet, and to leave no-one behind. Today, both the Paris agreement and the Sustainable Development Goals are off-track and their time is running out. Our planet is at risk and public trust in governments is fraying. Governments must aim higher, with greater ambition, courage, and imagination. Fresh thinking is needed, along with new, innovative public-private partnerships. It is time for these partnerships to be extended to the cultural and creative sectors.
Continue reading “The SDGs require a stronger role for culture in development”
By Maria Alejandra Riaño, Research Fellow, Governance Programme, Institut du Développement Durable et des Relations Internationales IDDRI
Public development banks around the world can play a vital role in minimising economic decline, supporting recovery and financing structural transformation. To fulfil this role, they need to fully capture the interconnected and transversal nature of the 2030 Agenda and align their practices, operations and investments accordingly. It is not just a matter of marginally adjusting strategies and processes – public development banks need to deeply reshape behaviours and investment practices.
Scaling up public development banks’ alignment with the 2030 Agenda
Public development banks have certain advantages that position them at the forefront of the vast network of actors responding to the socio-economic impacts of the COVID-19 crisis and seeking to chart a course towards a transformative recovery. Public development banks have become an essential and complementary voice for traditional co-operation and commercial investors due to their detailed knowledge of the specific context in each region or country, and unmatched flexibility in the design of concessional loan programmes.
Continue reading “Public development banks: gateways to transformative SDG financing”
By Professor Arkebe Oqubay, Senior Minister and Special Adviser to the Prime Minister of Ethiopia
The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development
In the context of international development, the year 2015 marked the transition from the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) to the much broader 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the much more ambitious Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It signalled an emerging paradigm shift in the international development agenda, a collectively agreed set of universal goals for an inclusive and sustainable global development process.
Continue reading “Achieving inclusive and sustainable industrialisation and the SDGs in the post-COVID-19 world”
By Vanessa de Oliveira, Task Team on CSO Development Effectiveness and Enabling Environment
Civil society organisations (CSOs) are widely recognised as important partners in the implementation and monitoring of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). But to what extent is civil society really engaged and involved in SDG processes or consultations at the country level?
A new Task Team study undertaken by the International Institute of Social Studies points to a lack of diversity in the types of civil society organisations engaged in these processes. Organisations that are part of the aid system – typically urban, often international or based in donor countries – are at a clear advantage.Similarly, another study (the 2018 Monitoring Round of the Global Partnership for Effective Development Co-operation) found opportunities for civil society organisations to be irregular, unpredictable and lacking the involvement of a diverse set of actors. The latest OECD study on Development Assistance Committee members and civil society also echoes these conclusions: dialogues between donors and CSOs are more likely to take place at the donors’ headquarters, and lack general good practice standards like setting a joint agenda.
Continue reading “Implementing the SDGs: why are some civil society organisations being left behind?”
By Ben Dickinson, Head of the Global Relations and Development Division, Centre for Tax Policy and Administration, OECD
The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) serve to stimulate action in areas of critical importance for humanity and the planet. With the COVID-19 pandemic affecting lives and livelihoods alike, the question is how will the SDGs be financed?
Domestic resources, primarily tax revenues, provide the vast majority of financing for development – money needed to build roads, schools, hospitals, social protection systems, and other critical services in developing countries. A new report released today, highlights the OECD’s work on building tax systems in developing countries, unlocking a range of tools, experience and expertise to meet the tax challenges of the 21st century. Continue reading “Building tax systems in developing countries is vital to overcoming COVID-19 and achieving the SDGs”
By Sebastian Nieto Parra, Head of Latin America and the Caribbean Unit, OECD Development Centre, Mario Pezzini, former Director of the OECD Development Centre and special Advisor to the OECD Secretary General on Development, and Joseph Stead, Senior Policy Analyst, OECD Centre for Tax Policy and Administration
The “Decade of Delivery” for the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) calls for finding sustainable ways to finance development. Closing the financing gap by 2030 will require between USD5 and USD7 trillion annually, and between USD2.5 and USD3 trillion of that amount for developing countries alone. There are several approaches to financing the SDGs in low-income countries. External private financing and official development assistance both have a role to play but these are not the only options. We must take an in depth-look at all options, including taxes, local financing through domestic private banks or national development banks, and local public-private partnerships. Due to the colossal amount needed to finance the SDGs, they must all be taken into consideration. But some can be particularly costly. Experiences of public-private partnerships in developing and emerging economies for example, have often resulted in high fiscal costs and a high rate of renegotiations after only a few years of operation.
Continue reading “Mind the SDG gap: don’t forget sustainable domestic financing”
