United Nations, New York, 11 June 2018 – The President of the 72nd session of the United Nations General Assembly, H.E. Mr. Miroslav Lajčák, today convened a high-level event on financing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) under the theme “Breaking the Bottlenecks of Investment from Policy to Impact.”
The event was organized to address the factors that block private investment toward SDG sectors. It also examined the role of the United Nations in strengthening public-private partnerships and how the United Nations could better align itself with the rapidly-changing world of international finance.
In his opening remarks, President Lajčák said, “We only have two choices. One: We finance the SDGs. And we achieve them. Or two: We don’t. And we fail. There is no in-between. And the longer we stand at this fork in the road, the less choice we will have.”
In that regard, he added, “We need to sell the SDGs. We cannot just put our hands out – and expect the investments to come. Instead, we need to show how these goals can result in benefits for all.”
The President highlighted the importance of the private sector and said it had a bigger role to play. At the same time, he said, “The private sector does not hold all the answers. It did not come up with this Agenda. That was us: the General Assembly, the Member States. And the heaviest responsibility still lies on our shoulders.”
The event brought together the Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations, the Secretary-General of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), and representatives from the World Bank, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), regional development banks and businesses.
There was a video message from Bill Gates of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Other introductory speakers included: Douglas Peterson, the CEO of S&P Global; Namita Vikas, Group President and Global Head of Climate Strategy and Responsible Banking from YES BANK in India; Mustafa Suleyman, Co-founder and Head of Applied Artificial Intelligence at DeepMind; Steve Waygood, Chief Responsible Investment Officer at Aviva; and Tariq Fancy, Chief Investment Officer of Sustainable Investing at BlackRock.
The event featured four panel discussions, entitled “Build fertile soil for business: providing concerted leadership”; “Let the investment grow: filling in the gap of trillions”; “Remove the hurdles of irrigation: channeling investment to the ground”; and “Secure the fruits: maximizing investment impact”.
Before closing the meeting, President Lajčák said his team would produce a summary of today’s event as well as a “toolbox” containing major recommendations, best practices and available data.
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For media inquiries, please contact Brenden Varma, Spokesperson for the President of the General Assembly, 1-212-963-7238, 1-347-556-3433, varmab@un.org.
