UNCTAD’s
SDG Investment Trends Monitor, just published, provides the latest trends in SDG investment and an update on the investment
gap in developing countries.
SDG investment was up in 2022, but growth since the adoption of the SDGs has been insufficient. As a result, at the midpoint of the 2030 agenda,
the annual SDG investment gap has widened from $2.5 trillion in 2015 to $4 trillion today.
The number of international investment projects announced in developing countries in sectors relevant to the SDGs increased by 15% in 2022.
However, the growth was unbalanced, with some SDG sectors showing only slow progress. It was also uneven, with negative trends in LDCs (-9%) and stagnation in many other developing countries. Preliminary data for the first half of 2023 suggests that the number
of projects in developing countries fell by 7%.
The increase in the SDG investment gap is the result of shortfalls in the years since 2015, combined with the effects of multiple global challenges,
including the pandemic and the food, fuel and finance crises. More than half of today’s gap, or $2.2 trillion, relates to the energy transition.
Policy action to boost SDG investment will be the focus of discussions at
UNCTAD’s 8th
World Investment Forum next month.
The forum will feature summits, three ministerial meetings and more than 130 thematic events.
Organized under the overall theme of Investing in Sustainable Development, the forum will address key investment challenges, including the need to invest in food security, the energy transition, health for all, supply chain resilience and productive
capacity growth in the poorest countries. Taking place ahead of COP28 in the same location, the forum will include a focused track on climate finance and investment that will feed directly into COP negotiations.
Join over 6,000 attendees, including leading CEOs, heads of State, Ministers, sustainable
finance and investment experts and other stakeholders at UNCTAD’s World Investment Forum
in Abu Dhabi, from 16 to 20 October.
