As observers to the Finance in Common Executive Committee and lead of the UN cluster on alignment of both public and private finance with the SDGs, UNDP has produced this working paper, “Supporting Public Development Banks in their Commitments to Financing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and Paris Agreement,” for the Second Finance in Common Summit from 19-20 October 2021. The high-level global summit convenes over 450 public development banks with a total of over $11.2 trillion in assets. They account for over $2 trillion investments annually—at 10% of annual public and private investments around the world and play a critical role in SDGs financing to enable countries to meet the promise of the Paris Agreement.

This working paper provides an overview of UNDP’s key tools, standards and initiatives which support the commitments of the Finance in Common Joint Declaration. As such, it aims to:

• share how UNDP is contributing to the Finance in Common action areas alongside relevant public development banks and partners and
• present how UNDP can support public development banks to implement their commitments, providing information on key tools, initiatives and country-based support available. 

The paper is in response to needs emerging from the the COVID-19 pandemic, its socio-economic impact, and the climate emergency which are threating lives and livelihoods, creating a wide divergence of inequalities while global poverty, unemployment, hunger and debt continue to rise. The solutions that the 2030 Agenda and Paris Agreement Agenda offer are inextricably intertwined. Their roadmaps present urgent investment requirements to help developing countries to recover toward a greener and more inclusive development trajectory.

The paper was also developed in support of the United Nation’s (UN) recommendations at the first edition of the Finance in Common Summit (FiCS) in 2020, where the UN expressed their support for the coalition and encouraged public development banks to scale and implement commitments for SDGs and climate impact, and as observers to the Finance in Common Summit, support commitments aligned to the Secretary General’s Roadmap for Financing the 2030 Agenda.