Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman urged the private sector to come forward and support the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) during an event at the IMF-World Bank Annual meetings. Sitharaman stated that it is the collective responsibility of all stakeholders to participate and contribute to the SDGs. She expressed confidence in the MDB reform process resulting from G20 deliberations to maximize investments in developing nations.

Sitharaman highlighted the 17 SDGs adopted by United Nations member states in 2015, aimed at addressing social, economic, and environmental challenges by 2030. Under India’s Presidency, she called upon all G20 members to fully and effectively implement the 2030 Agenda and accelerate progress towards the SDGs. She emphasized that the private sector should join in pursuing this global vision.

The Finance Minister noted that global progress on SDGs is off-track, with only around 12% of the targets being on track. She reiterated India’s call to collectively resolve to implement the 2030 Agenda. With only seven years remaining to achieve the goals, Sitharaman emphasized the need to close the financing gap through global cooperation and alignment of financial resources.

During India’s G20 Presidency, Sustainable Finance has been extended to cover financing for SDGs, in addition to Climate Finance. To bridge the SDGs financing gap, Sitharaman stressed the importance of enhancing innovative financing approaches like blended finance and risk-sharing tools to leverage private finance for sustainable finance scaling. She also emphasized the need for reform in multilateral development banks to meet the challenges of the 21st century.

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