Feature posts

SDG Action was launched in 2021 by the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) to support the UN’s Decade of Action. Its aim is to encourage cross-sector dialogue and problem solving to accelerate the transition to sustainability.

Accelerating action on gender equality

Gender equality is critical to realizing all the SDGs, yet progress remains unacceptably slow. Humanity’s future demands that we urgently fix the multitudinous factors blocking women and girls from achieving their potential

Sima Bahous

The SDGs need a strong and loud civil society

The Global Goals represent a quest to achieve human rights for all. In the face of democratic backsliding and a global trend to restrict free speech, we must ensure that civil society remains an active force for their progress

Kizito Byenkya, Chanu Peiris
  1. Harnessing digital to rescue the SDGs 

    In this digital age, over two billion people worldwide still lack internet access. With progress on the SDGs way off course, we must ramp up access to, and application of, digital technologies – including AI – to get Agenda 2030 back on track

    Doreen Bogdan-Martin
  2. Shaping the future world of work

    As the pace of societal change accelerates, many jobs considered essential today will become obsolete tomorrow. Creating resilience and adaptability, particularly among the world’s most vulnerable workers, is essential and requires a global, whole-of-society policy effort and investment

    Mia Seppo
  3. Fixing the global financial system

    In the words of the UN Secretary-General, developing countries have limited access to the financial resources they need to address the dramatic challenges they face and implement the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The global financial architecture, created for a very different world eight decades ago, needs urgent reform to make it fit for purpose

    Shari Spiegel

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Financing the SDGs

Deficiencies and inequalities in the global financial system have come into stark focus over the last couple of years. Raising sufficient funding, at fair rates of interest and channeling it according to SDG need, will be critical to the success of the SDGs.

  • Scaling up financing for sustainable development

    Uneven access to affordable financing for development, starkly exposed by the pandemic, has become even more entrenched as events over the past year have exacerbated divides between developed and developing countries. Without urgent action, such financing divides risk becoming sustainable development divides

    Lachezara Stoeva
  • SDG-aligned investment: a new development paradigm

    Investment in pursuit of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is often presented as discretionary, expendable when funds are tight. We must change public and political perceptions to recognize the full scope of the returns that SDG-aligned investments can yield

    Marcos Athias Neto
  • The role of bonds in transforming infrastructure for net-zero

    Massive investment is needed in infrastructure to achieve the transition to clean energy and create resilience against the impacts of global warming. The scale of investment – as much as $9 trillion per year – exceeds the capabilities of public finance and will rely on aligning private sector financing. Green or climate bonds seem an obvious instrument for the task – are they the killer solution?

    Sean Kidney

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