Sustainable Development Report (SDR) 2022: from crisis to sustainable development, the SDGs as roadmap to 2030 and beyond

The report shows that for the second year in a row, the world is no longer making progress on the SDGs. A global plan to finance the SDGs is needed. At mid-point on the way to 2030, policy efforts and commitments supporting the SDGs vary significantly across countries, including among G20 countries. A global plan to finance the SDGs is needed. Achieving the SDGs is fundamentally an investment agenda in physical infrastructure (including renewable energy) and human capital. Yet the poorest half of the world roughly speaking, the low-income countries (LICs) and lower-middle-income countries (LMICs) lacks market access to capital on acceptable terms. The study highlights five priorities towards a global plan to finance the SDGs. First, the G20 should declare clearly and unequivocally its commitment to channel far larger flows of financing to developing countries so that they can achieve economic development and meet the SDG targets. Second, the G20 should greatly increase the lending capacity and annual flows of the Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs), mainly through greater paid-in capital to these institutions, but also through greater leverage of their balance sheets. Third, the G20 should support other measures as well – notably increased ODA, large-scale philanthropy, and refinancing of debts falling due – to bolster SDG finance for the LICs and LMICs. Fourth, the IMF and the credit-rating agencies need to redesign the assessments of debt sustainability, taking into account the growth potential of developing countries and their need for far larger capital accumulation. Fifth, working together with the IMF and the MDBs, developing countries need to strengthen their debt management and creditworthiness by integrating their borrowing policies with tax policies, export policies, and liquidity management, all to prevent future liquidity crises.