NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Monday, December 19, 2016

As impact investing continues to show strong growth as a sector, the Sustainable Development Goals are fast emerging as a reference for an ever-diversifying range of actors seeking guidelines on how to invest for impact.

“Impact investment is coalescing around the SDGs as being a way of almost articulating and branding what impact investment is all about,” Nick O’Donohoe, senior adviser at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, told Devex at the investor forum organized by the Global Impact Investing Network drew to a close last Thursday.

The two-day forum, which took place in Amsterdam, was marked by a strong sense of urgency for addressing the emerging social, economic and environmental challenges. The SDGs will likely play a guiding role.

“It is a critical time for investors to look around them, at the challenges facing their communities and the environment, and to consider how capital can be leveraged to generate long-term solutions,” said GIIN CEO Amit Bouri.