What to Read This Week- The UN’s High Level Political Forum & the GSG Impact Summit
Finance gets a focus at the UN’s main event for follow-up and review of the Global Goals.
Beginning Monday, both New York City and Chicago host two events that should hold the interest of impact investors from coast to coast. This week, we provide resources to follow along with the United Nation’s High Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development, and a quick view of the upcoming Global Social Impact Investment Steering Group (GSG) Impact Summit. Both events begin on Monday, July 10th.
The HLPF
The UN’s High Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development begins on the 10th and goes through the 19th. Events cover the review and follow-up of the Sustainable Development Goals and the 2030 Agenda. Sessions during the forum range from ministerial formalities among Member States to sessions specifically dedicated to impact investing for the Global Goals. Here is when we will be tuning in:
- The SDG Business Forum — takes place during the HLPF on Wednesday, July 18th. Sessions discuss the role and experiences of the private sector in achieving and the monitoring the SDGs, including a discussion on working with governments. The UN Global Compact has also created a Business Guide to the HLPF.
- Thematic Review of Goal 17: Investing in and Financing for SDGs — Thursday, July 13th, starting at 3pm. This official meeting of the Forum will be broadcast live on UN Web TV; however, official sessions can sometimes get behind schedule, and this thematic review may take place later than the scheduled 3pm.
- Side-event: Impact Investment and Innovation for the SDGs — while it may be hard to find livestreams of HLPF side-events, we are looking forward to this conversation from the UN Development Programme and the Permanent Mission of Armenia to the UN. This event takes place on Thursday, July 13th from 10am-1pm, before the Thematic discussion of Goal 17 and SDG financing later that day.
The GSG Impact Summit
Thankfully, there are few relevant HLPF sessions taking place on July 10th and 11th, leaving time to follow the GSG Impact Summit held in Chicago. The GSG, an outgrowth of the G8 task force on impact investing, established in 2013 under the UK’s leadership, seeks to bring together major foundation, national representatives, and other organizations to “ discuss the current state of the sector globally, and work together to identify priorities, key action areas and milestones to take impact investment to tipping point by 2020.”
We’ll be following along on Twitter using #GSGsummit.
