ISID Professor of Practice Christian Novak at OECD's 2020 conference on Private Finance for Sustainable Development

McGill-ISID's Professor of Practice Christian Novak participated last week at the OECD's 2020 conference on Private Finance for Sustainable Development. Over three days, participative discussions were related to OECD's observation that "progress towards achieving the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development remains slow and uneven, and a major obstacle to advancing SDGs in emerging and developing economies is that most private finance and business activities are neither aligned with SDGs nor compatible with low-emission, climate-resilient development pathways." Christian Novak participated as a speaker in three sessions that discussed the roles of international and domestic pension funds, and of private sector insurance actors, in development finance. Christian Novak's interventions highlighted the importance of increased dedicated expert efforts to structure investments in alignment with the requirements and needs of private investors, and he also highlighted the importance of actively sharing knowledge and experience in investing for development, all of which would contribute to increased volumes of private capital directed to the SDGs. Together with Professor Franque Grimard, Christian Novak had expressed observations and recommendations in relation this matter in ISID's Policy Brief 2019-04. We thank the OECD and Paul Horrocks for the invitation to join these sessions, and we look forward to further discussions.