Financing the Sustainable Development Goals

Wednesday, April 10th 2019 8:00 AM – 9:30 AM

Lindner Family Commons

Information: The last few years have witnessed a seismic shift in investors’ attitudes and demand for social and economic investments in emerging markets. Impact investing, ESG, Green Finance and SDGs are among many of the words that have recently populated investment committees and investor conferences as well as boardrooms. Leveraging GWU’s IIEP Visiting Scholar’s work on Assessing and Monitoring the Addis Ababa Action Agenda (AAA) and Citi’s GPS research, UN’s SDG: Pathways to Success- A Systemic Framework for Aligning Investment, the event will provide the opportunity to evaluate the progress of SDG financing and to appraise the degree of mobilization of private sector capital in support of the SDGs. Within this analytical context, market participants — issuers, investors, Development Financial Institutions (DFIs) and donors — will discuss the advances and challenges of financing sustainable development. The forum will seek to address the means to scale private sector capital investment, the need to institutionalise SDG financing instruments and structures and the critical contributions that public sector actors, such as donor agencies, can make to realize the “disruption” of the development aid paradigm. The discussion will also touch upon the importance of data capture and disclosure as it relates to the impact and outcomes of the SDG’s investments.  

Agenda

7:30–8:00am: Breakfast and Registration 8:00–8.05am: Welcome Remarks

• Maggie Chen, Director, Institute for International Economic Policy, GWU
• Julie Monaco, Managing Director, Global Head Public Sector Group, Corporate and Investment Bank, Citi

8:05–8:20am: Setting the Stage (Presentations of Relevant Research)

• Ajay Chhibber, Visiting Scholar, Institute for International Economic Policy, GWU
• Jason Channell, Head of Social & Responsible Investment Research, Citi

8:20–9:30am: High-Level Panel Discussion and Audience Q&A Panelists

• Denis Duverne, Chairman, Board of Directors, AXA
• Mahmoud Mohieldin, Senior Vice President, 2030 Development Agenda, United Nations Relations, and Partnerships, World Bank
• Donna Sims Wilson, President, Smith Graham & Co.
• Sean Jones, Senior Deputy Assistant Administrator, Food Security, USAID
• Tim Turner, Group Chief Risk Officer, African Development Bank

Organizing Committee: Peter Sullivan (Citi), Ajay Chhibber, Kyle Renner, Sunil Sharma (all George Washington University), and Andreas (Andy) Jobst (World Bank)