World Bank sets up fund to boost skills and data for SDGs

25 Oct 18

The World Bank has launched a fund to support the implementation of the UN Sustainable Development Goals by improving data and skills.

The Partnership Fund for the Sustainable Development Goals – known as the SDG Fund ­­­– is a multi-donor initiative to incentivise public and private investment towards the implementation of the goals, improve skills and data within countries.

The fund will, for example, support a series of data-driven case studies to help policymakers strengthen the ways individual goals are measured, monitored and invested in.

World Bank senior vice president Mahmoud Mohieldin said: “We saw a funding gap for high impact strategic initiatives at the global, regional and national and local levels that could help to catalyse countries development trajectories for the SDGs.”

The fund will also help build the skills and capacity needed within countries to successfully implement the goals by 2030.

The World Bank’s first partner is Sweden, with an initial contribution of $7m.

One of the fund’s first funding allocations will support a programme to enhance private sector investments by ensuring they are in line with the SDGs.

The fund’s primary focus will be SDG 17, which promises support through global partnerships and cooperation, finance, data, trade, capacity building and peer-to-peer collaboration.

“The aim of the multi-donor SDG Fund is to incentivise catalytic activities that strengthen SDG implementation, equipping countries with tools and best practices to achieve their sustainable development objectives ahead of 2030,” the bank said.

Poor countries need to collectively spend an additional $520bn a year on key public services and infrastructure if they are going to meet the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, an International Monetary Fund analysis found last month.

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