News

2018 SDG Investment Fair

(The Westin New York Grand Central, 22 April 2018)

The Addis Ababa Action Agenda (Addis Agenda) calls “on all businesses to apply their creativity and innovation to solving sustainable development challenges” and invites them “to invest in areas critical to sustainable development” (para 35). In addition, the Addis Agenda recognizes that “investing in sustainable and resilient infrastructure […], for all” is a pre-requisite for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and points to an infrastructure gap of $1 trillion to $1.5 trillion annually in developing countries (para 14).

The outcome of the 2017 ECOSOC Forum on Financing for Development follow-up concluded that the implementation of the SDGs “can open new business […] opportunities” and that “more can be done to create competitive business and investment climates in support of sustainable development that are well placed to attract private sector investment and participation.” (para 11).

The 2018 “SDG Investment Fair” (SDGI Fair) will be organized by the Financing for Development Office (FfDO), in cooperation with the Division for Sustainable Development (DSD), of the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs, in New York on the eve of the 2018 ECOSOC Forum on Financing for Development follow-up (23-26 April 2018). The SDGI Fair will provide a platform for direct interaction between 100-150 participants representing governments of developing countries, private sector investors, financial intermediaries and other relevant stakeholders.

The primary objective of the SDGI Fair will be to promote interactions between high-level government officials and the private sector, especially the investor community, as well as financial intermediaries, with the aim to contribute to facilitating deals on SDG investments. For this purpose, the SDGI Fair will: (i) showcase initiatives and activities on scaling up investment in SDGs; and (ii) promote policy dialogue between Governments and the private sector. In addition, the SDGI Fair will aim to increase the understanding and knowledge among government officials of developing countries of practices at the national, regional and international levels aimed at attracting private capital, both domestically and internationally, to finance large-scale projects in support of the SDGs.

Modalities

Opening lunch

Opening remarks will be delivered by the President of ECOSOC, the Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs, high-level representatives of the business and investor community and of the sponsoring entities.

Presentation and discussion of large-scale, high-impact success stories

Davos-style panels with professional moderators and representatives from relevant stakeholders will discuss pre-selected large-scale, high-impact projects and initiatives in developing countries. The panels will identify key challenges that governments of these countries faced in attracting long-term investments and discuss concrete actions and policy measures that helped overcome such challenges.

Parallel working groups

Based on the topics of the initial discussions, parallel breakout sessions will allow participants to dive deeper into the content of the presentations. Government representatives from developing countries will have the chance to pick a deal of relevance to their national sustainable development strategies and discuss in the smaller group on how to enter deals of a similar nature.

Bilateral meetings and exhibits

In addition to the official programme, space for bilateral meetings among government representatives and investors, as well as exhibit space will be provided.
Evening reception