Investing with SDG outcomes: A five-part framework

This report provides a high-level framework for any investors looking to shape real-world outcomes in line with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It lays out a five-part framework:

• Identify outcomes - Part 1 is about investors identifying and understanding the unintended outcomes of their investments and their own operations.
• Set policies and targets - Part 2 sees investors setting policies and targets, moving the investor from identifying and understanding unintended outcomes towards taking intentional steps to shape outcomes. As many outcomes are connected – e.g. climate change and water scarcity, food security and poverty – investors will have to look across all investments and all SDGs holistically when considering their most important outcomes.
• Investors shape outcomes - In Part 3, investors seek to shape outcomes in line with the policies and targets set in Part 2, and report on progress against those objectives.
• Financial system shapes collective outcomes - Part 4 considers the contribution of the financial system. Shaping outcomes in line with the SDGs at the financial system level takes place both through aggregating the actions of individual investors, and from investors acting collectively – including alongside other financial system participants such as credit rating agencies, index providers, proxy advisors, banks, insurers and multilateral financial institutions.
• Global stakeholders collaborate to achieve outcomes in line with the SDGs - Part 5 recognises that no one set of actors will achieve the SDGs in isolation. The finance sector, businesses, governments, academia, civil society, the media, individuals and their communities must act collectively to ultimately achieve the SDGs.