The world’s poorest countries risk a lost decade of development unless leaders move quickly to help them recover from the fallout of Covid-19, Melinda Gates told the Guardian.
The co-chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which has committed $350m (£270m) to support the global response to the pandemic, said it was
It is a common observation – supported by the likes of the World Bank and the United Nations – that incorporating resilience into communities after a natural disaster helps prepare them for future catastrophes. This is known in the jargon as ‘building back better’.
Investors and asset managers serious about addressing the UN Sustainable Development
When the lockdowns were initiated in response to the coronavirus crisis, I assumed that I would get time back in my otherwise-overscheduled travel and meeting diary. Like a lot of my peers, I thought that for a few weeks the break from the usual demands of our physical world would mean a slower pace, with
When the lockdowns were initiated in response to the coronavirus crisis, I assumed that it meant I would get significant time back in my otherwise overscheduled travel and meeting diary. Like a lot of my peers, I thought that for a few weeks the break from the usual demands of our physical world would mean
As the globe reels under the onslaught of COVID19, the major contentions floating around are about the global economic slump and uncertainties in the global political and economic orders. The pandemic, by itself, and also through various economic, social and political avenues, will affect global developmental objectives at a much broader scale. The impacts will
Institutional and private equity investors are becoming increasingly conscious of the social and environmental impact of their investment decisions, as well as the financial returns, amid a global push on reducing carbon emissions and boosting corporate responsibility. But as impact investing starts to gain more traction among investors, greater benchmarking
Ethical investing has seen a boom in popularity over the past year with savers piling into so-called environmental, social and governance or ‘ESG’ funds.
In Europe, 290 ESG-oriented funds were launched last year while in the US, total assets under management in sustainable investments more than doubled from approximately $40billion (£32.5billion) in 2013 to almost
The European Union says that the region needs an additional €175-290 billion in private investment a year (pdf) to become a “climate-neutral” economy by 2050. (That’s $199-330 billion.) That may sound like a lot, but it barely puts a dent in the $5-7 trillion that the UN thinks is needed every year to achieve
We’ve been reading Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress, Steven Pinker’s recent book that Bill Gates called in his blog, “my new favorite book of all time.” We can see why: Pinker argues that the ideals of the Enlightenment—all centered on reason—brought the world untold progress and can help us make
There is a spectrum of approaches to responsible investing, from excluding companies that fail certain criteria, through full integration of environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors in the investment process, and up to strategies that target specific sustainability-oriented themes such as renewable energy.
If non-financial goals are as important to you as financial returns, you can
In July, several aid groups came together to tackle what the United Nations called the biggest humanitarian crisis since the end of World War II: More than 20 million people in 10 African countries were at risk of famine. Aid groups pulled together under the umbrella of the Global Emergency Response Coalition and went
How can we alleviate extreme poverty? It’s the question that underpins the UN sustainable development goals (SDGs), and almost all development projects. Because poverty almost always shows itself as a lack of resources in poor communities – food, safe water, sanitation, education, healthcare – it’s reasonable to theorise that poverty is a resource problem. So,