Financing for Sustainable Development Report 2020

The UN Inter-agency Task Force, coordinated with UN Department of Economic and Social Affair,s has just published a new Financing for Sustainable Development Report (FSDR 2020) that highlights both immediate and long-term actions, including arresting the backslide, to respond to the COVID-19 crisis. Even before the pandemic, the 2020 Financing for Sustainable Development Report (FSDR) of the Inter-agency Task Force noted that there was backsliding in many areas.

The financing landscape has changed dramatically since the adoption of the Addis Ababa Action Agenda. Digital technology has transformed key aspects of financial systems. There has also been rapidly growing interest in sustainable investing, in part due to greater awareness of the impact of climate and other non-economic risks on financial returns.

Yet, just as we begin the decade of action, global challenges have multiplied. The economic and financial shocks associated with COVID-19—such as disruptions to industrial production, falling commodity prices, financial market volatility, and rising inse- curity—are derailing the already tepid economic growth and compounding heightened risks from other factors. These include the retreat from multilateralism, a discontent and distrust of glo- balization, heightened risk of debt distress, and more frequent and severe climate shocks. Together, these make sustainable finance more difficult—and further undermine the ability to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030.

Amid these destabilizing trends, the 2020 Financing for Sustainable Development Report of the Inter-Agency Task Force finds that the international economic and financial systems are not only failing to deliver on the SDGs, but that there has been substantial backsliding in key action areas. Governments, businesses and individuals must take action now to arrest these trends and change the trajectory.

The 2020 FSDR begins with an analysis of the extremely challenging global macroeconomic context (chapter I). The thematic chapter (chapter II) analyses financing sustainable development in an era of transformative digital technologies. The remainder of the report (Chapters III.A to III.G and IV) discusses progress in the seven action areas of the Addis Agenda, and presents policy options at the national and international level.

Read full FSDR 2020

Read FSDR 2020 Overview

Lean more about UN Inter-agency Task Force on Financing for Development

Sustainable Development Goals