May 2014: ‘Co-Creating New Partnerships for Financing Sustainable Development,’ a report from the Chairs of the UN Intergovernmental Committee of Experts on Sustainable Development Financing’s (ICESDF), summarizes the Committee’s outreach event in Espoo, Finland, on 3-4 April 2014, highlighting main messages raised key points from presentations and interactive panel discussions.
The summary emphasizes the opportunity for a paradigm shift in sustainable development financing, which can be facilitated by, inter alia: making sustainable development an essential element of company strategies; promoting synergies between public and private financing; and creating new innovative partnerships within a systematic and holistic framework while avoiding excessive proliferation of partnerships.
On the framework for partnerships, the summary calls for a focus on national and local-level economic, environmental and social impacts while also promoting systemic change. The summary notes that partnerships should be relevant for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and the informal sector, as well as large companies, and suggests that partnerships should develop local productive and income generation capacity.
On enabling conditions, recommendations included a new framework for international investments, and strengthening the role of the state in financial resource management, including enforcement and regulation.
Four panel events addressed: the role of the private sector and enabling environment in financing sustainable development; innovative initiatives and best practices; creating new partnerships; and the role of private sector partnerships beyond 2015, including how to achieve universality in sustainable development financing.
The outreach event aimed to discuss the role of the private sector in financing sustainable development and the opportunities for creating mutually beneficial partnerships among stakeholders. It brought together over 100 experts on sustainable development and financing from four continents. The Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland organized the event in cooperation with Aalto Global Impact of Aalto University.
Experts from Finland and Nigeria co-chair the ICESDF. [Publication: Co-Creating New Partnerships for Financing Sustainable Development] [Meeting Website] [ICESDF Website]