28 September 2016: Civil society groups and the private sector have released publications, papers and blog posts on innovative financing models to achieve the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Paris Agreement on climate change, and the importance of an integrated approach to the SDGs. The Global Burden of Disease Study (GBD) released its report on health-related SDGs, while other contributions reflect on outcomes from the UN General Assembly (UNGA) and Climate Week, welcome progress on data, and showcase private sector action on food security.

On financing the SDGs and the Paris Agreement, the Rockefeller Foundation highlights its ‘Zero Gap’ initiative. Zero Gap is a model of innovative financing by which private capital invested in global financial markets is deployed towards development efforts. The Zero Gap portfolio is aligned with the SDGs. Among the financial mechanisms it includes are a ‘Forest Resilience Impact Bond’ that funds wildlife prevention activities in California through a pay-for-performance mechanism, and ‘Re.bound,’ which designs resilience bonds to manage the financial risk from city catastrophes, while promoting investment in disaster-resilient infrastructure.

On an integrated approach to the 2030 Agenda, a Global Policy Watch (GPW) paper identifies five ways in which the 2030 Agenda goes beyond previous development agendas, including its recognition of the need to address inequality and unsustainable consumption and production as by-products of economic growth, and ensure synergies through a whole-of-government approach. Titled ‘Silos or system? The 2030 Agenda requires an integrated approach to sustainable development,’ the paper also underscores the 2030 Agenda’s commitment to accountability and transparency, and reflects on how the UN system can be reformed to support the Agenda.

On health-related SDGs, the Global Burden of Disease Study (GBD) analyzed national progress through a SDG index score to identify areas of progress and challenges in achieving 33 health-related SDG indicators from 1990 to 2015. The results, which are published in ‘The Lancet,’ rank Iceland as the closest to achieving the targets, while the Central African Republic (CAR) is the farthest. With some indicators showing worsening trends, the authors recommend sustaining and accelerating gains to ensure the world achieves the health-related SDGs, and underscore income, education and birth rate as drivers of health improvement.

On outcomes from the UNGA and Climate Week, the World Resources Institute (WRI) highlights: ratifications of the Paris Agreement that have brought it closer to entry into force; a US Presidential Memorandum on climate and security that aims to make climate change assessments central to all national security decisions; the launch of the Partnership for Resilience and Preparedness (PREP), by WRI, the US White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, the US Global Change Research Program and partners, to enable access to quality data for climate resilience planning; a declaration in support of amending the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer to address the use of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), including an early freeze date on their use, and an additional contribution to the Montreal Protocol’s Multilateral Fund (MLF) to help developing countries transition away from HFCs; and support for science-based emissions-reduction targets through the Science Based Targets (SBT) project. WRI welcomes these actions but stresses the need for transparency and accountability in achieving progress.

On data, a UN Foundation blog post welcomes a commitment by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to improve gender data, along with other related actions from Hewlett, Data2X, and others. The UN Foundation observes that measuring SDG progress is being taken seriously and that gender data partnerships are producing results, from disaggregating Twitter feeds by sex to understand what matters to women and girls, to using geospatial data for gender analysis to show women’s welfare at higher resolutions than survey data.

On private sector initiatives, the Swedish home appliance manufacturer Electrolux created the Electrolux Food Foundation, a food sustainability action plan to tackle hunger, food waste and responsible consumption. The Foundation aims to inspire better food consumption and cooking habits, maximize sustainable health choices, and support emergency relief efforts through Worldchefs without Borders. The Foundation will finance the Feed the Planet partnership to deliver food projects. [Rockefeller Foundation Blog] [Silos or System?] [University of York Press Release on Health SDGs] [Measuring the Health-related SDGs in 188 Countries] [WRI Blog] [UN Foundation Blog] [Press Release on Electrolux Food Foundation]