The Global Outlook on Financing for Sustainable Development 2021 calls for collective action to address both the short-term collapse in resources of developing countries as well as long-term strategies to build back better following the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Successive crises including COVID-19, Russia’s war of aggression in Ukraine and the climate emergency are exacerbating inequalities between and within countries and stifling progress to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Paris Agreement. While developed countries deployed historic stimulus packages to build back better, developing countries lacked fiscal and monetary buffers to respond. Countries with the fewest resources face challenging trade-offs between short-term rescue and long-term financing for a sustainable recovery.

This report examines the role that national institutional and governance innovations and changes that emerged during the COVID-19 pandemic can play in advancing progress towards the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The consequences of the pandemic threaten to derail progress and make the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) more difficult to achieve. Yet the pandemic also sparked rapid innovation in government institutions and public administration that could be capitalized on. Against this backdrop, the report focuses on how governments can reshape their relationship with people and other actors to enhance trust and promote the changes required for more sustainable and peaceful societies. How they can assess competing priorities and address difficult policy trade-offs that have emerged since 2020. And what assets and innovations they can mobilize to transform the public sector and achieve the SDGs. The e-book for this publication has been converted into an accessible format for the visually impaired and people with print reading disabilities. It is fully compatible with leading screen-reader technologies such as JAWS and NVDA.

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development has an unprecedented ambition, but also confronts countries with an enormous challenge given the complex and integrated nature of the Agenda with its 17 Goals, underpinned by 169 Targets. To assist national governments with their implementation, the OECD has developed a unique methodology allowing comparison of progress across SDG goals and targets, and also over time.

This issue of the African Development Perspectives Yearbook focusses on the relevance of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 9 ("Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization, and foster innovation") for Africa's development. Issues are analysed at the continental level and in country case studies. Unit 1 presents in four essays the African continental perspectives and achievements. Unit 2 presents six essays, which are focussing on aspects of the eight targets of SDG 9 in country cases. Unit 3 presents book reviews and book notes in the context of SDG 9.

This book explores the swiftly emerging nexus between sustainability, finance, and technology. Leading practitioners and academic thought leaders reflect on the ways in which technology and digitalization shape how sustainable finance professionals address environmental, social, and governance (ESG) issues. Together, the contributors identify three spheres in which technology shapes how investors make sense of such issues: ESG and technology: finance professionals need to know about how technological innovations, such as chemical recycling for plastics, in the real economy shape firms’ ESG performance; ESG through technology: technological developments, such as AI and blockchain, can enable finance professionals to offer more fine-grained ESG analyses; and ESG as technology: the ESG agenda itself is influenced by technological developments that are not well understood by practitioners (e.g., data mining for Bitcoin creating significant emissions). Using practically relevant examples and recent insights from people working in the field, the book explores the linkages between sustainability, technology, and finance in different contexts and shows how practitioners can accelerate needed change processes. This book primarily addresses practitioners in companies and investment firms as well as students enrolled in executive education and MBA programs.

This guide provides a framework to strengthen the role of development co-operation for mobilising foreign direct investment (FDI) and enhancing its positive impact in developing countries. The guide reviews a broad range of financial and technical solutions for enhancing the impact of FDI on sustainable development, and outlines ways donors can consider the impact of FDI on their strategies, thus supporting the design, implementation and monitoring of FDI-related assistance.

This book provides insight on the concept of social value and social return on investment (SROI) - or measures to evaluate the social outcomes from interventions, beyond simply jobs and income. It offers a new and holistic perspective on the values generated from environmental stewardship and forest governance, and focuses on the methods, approaches and outcomes for understanding social value and SROI. The book offers new directions in social value and SROI, including cultural and spiritual outcomes, gender equity, and health and well-being, and provides pathways for implementing interventions and measuring social impact. It includes state of the art approaches from diverse and interdisciplinary experts drawn from academia and professional practice, including the voices and perspectives of Indigenous Peoples and local communities involved in programs, with a focus on environmental stewardship. Social value and SROI are increasingly used to assess outcomes from conservation and this book broadens the conversation on the impact and business case for these interventions. The book offers practical guidance to readers in pursuing social value and those seeking to measure it.

The Fair Share report outlines how gender-equitable investments in health and care work can help fully recognize the value of health and care work, to drive fairer and more inclusive economies and better health outcomes. The report presents six policy levers to better value health and care work: Investments in health and care systems not only accelerate progress on UHC, they redistribute unpaid health and care work. Health systems need to recognize, value and invest in all forms health and care work.

This book compiles and explains technical terms in sustainable finance in an easy-to-navigate A-Z format. The interdisciplinary nature of sustainable finance means that those researching and working in the field often have to turn to a variety of different sources to look up various non-financial terms. Recognizing this issue, Ibrahim Sancak and Elisa Aracil have curated a comprehensive list of the key terms most commonly used in the field. Each entry maps out an important concept or idea and illustrates how it relates more broadly across this growing discipline, such as the changes and innovations required by the financial sector to meet the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals. Overall, Essential Concepts of Sustainable Finance will enable readers to communicate more effectively about finance within the context of sustainability. With related terms and further reading included alongside the entries, this innovative and accessible volume will be of great interest to students, scholars, and practitioners alike.