Financing the UN Sustainable Development Goals
Daniel Preston
O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs
Are you concerned about the environment? Do you recognize the urgent need to address global poverty? Are you curious about international development and finance? This is the course for you.
In 2015, member countries of the United Nations agreed to establish the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for 2030. They were a comprehensive call to action for all nations to work towards a world free from poverty and hunger with the health of the planet in mind. They further sought dignity in work and an end to all forms of discrimination plus many more admirable objectives.
While several of the SDGs require governments to enact policy changes or take collective action, most require an enormous amount of new investment to achieve. This is exactly where the SDGs left a gaping hole. How would the world pay for this ambitious agenda? So far, the world is not on track to achieve the SDGs and the pandemic has made matters worse. The OECD (2022) now estimates the financing gap is USD 3.9 trillion per year in developing countries alone.
This course centers on the financing challenge. It starts by looking at the SDGs themselves and the concept of sustainable development. It then evaluates the merits of ideas and solutions put forward by development practitioners and scholars alike to increase the amount of financing allocated to the SDGs. The bulk of the course is focused on “blended finance” – the use of public resources to attract commercial investment for the SDGs. The course will provide you with an in-depth look at the theory, mechanisms, and application of blended finance. It will be practical in nature with case studies, simulations, and multimedia of actual projects. Not to mention, it is taught by an instructor who works at the center of this transformation in development finance.
This course is eligible for honors credit through Hutton Honors College.
Catalog Information: SPEA-V 100 CURRENT TOPICS IN PUBLIC AFF