The National University of Singapore (NUS) Business School has joined eight other leading business schools and universities in partnering the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to develop a research agenda that will improve how private investment finances the achievement of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
The initiative will bring the private and public sector together through impact investment that yields competitive financial, social and environmental returns.
Led by UNDP SDG Impact Finance (UNSIF), the business schools and universities from across Asia, Europe and the United States will come together to form the UNSIF Research Council (RC). The Council is tasked with developing the methodology and to set down yardsticks to measure the impact of sustainable investing. It will also undertake research to improve the analytical frameworks, evidence, and policy environment that encourage and guide commercial capital flows in support of the UN’s SDGs.
The Global Impact Investing Network (GIIN) has estimated that there are now at least $114 billion worth of impact investing assets under management. However, as the sector grows rapidly, one of the biggest challenges is measuring impact.
Mr Magdy Martinez-Soliman, UN Assistant Secretary General, UNDP Assistant Administrator and Director, Bureau for Policy and Programme Support said, “The growing and promising niche of impact investing is a vanguard for how the private sector can intentionally create positive impacts. The term ‘impact’ can be seen as a convenient shorthand for the 17 Sustainable Development Goals – and impact investors, by their own definition, embody an ethos for intentionally creating outcomes that are positive for society and the environment. The returns they target are much more than just financial. These experiences can guide us as we re-imagine development finance for the SDGs.”
With impact investing becoming a leading global theme, Professor Joseph Cherian, Director of the Centre for Asset Management and Investments (CAMRI), NUS Business School, opined that this shift cannot be ignored. He said, “We are happy to join this important research network and contribute towards this initiative, especially on the involvement of large financial and investment houses such as pension and government funds. Academic studies have shown that long-term capital should care about long-term impacts, which encompass risk-adjusted merits.”
Prof Cherian added, “For starters, asset owners and managers incorporating language regarding impact investing into investment policy statements and requirements will help set the course for a positive direction. With the large asset owners embracing these mindsets, the entire value chain, including the asset management industry, will be impacted.”
Besides NUS Business School, the following business schools and universities which have committed to join this important initiative are:
Through complementary cycles of research-testing-certification-policy cycles, the ultimate goal of the RC is to produce a standardised impact measuring framework that governments can use to make informed public investment decisions, define new policy options for impact investing and incentivise capital markets to prioritise SDG-aligned investment practices.
This announcement came on the sidelines of the 72nd United Nations General Assembly, at an event titled “Big Data, Impact Management & the SDGs”, which was co-hosted by the UNDP and the UN Global Pulse last Friday in New York.
