MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: United Nations Creates Task Force on Using Fintech to Achieve SDGs

The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) recently launched a task force on the use of financial technology (fintech) to support progress toward the UN sustainable development goals (SDGs), 17 guiding principles for combating poverty, protecting the environment, and encouraging economic and political stability. The group will include representatives from high- and low-income countries, including “experts from the investment community, capital markets, government, and civil society, as well as leading banks and innovators in digital payments.” The task force plans to meet in Davos, Switzerland, in January 2019 and produce a preliminary set of recommendations by September 2019.

Over the past six years, fintech has enabled an estimated 1.2 billion people in developing countries to access financial services for the first time. The co-chair of the task force, Maria Ramos, commented that digital financial services are revolutionizing “not just financial institutions, but entire financial systems.”

By Michelle Fleming, Research Associate

Sources and Additional Resources

UNDP press release
http://www.undp.org/content/undp/en/home/news-centre/news/2018/United_Nations_Secretary-General_launches_task_force_on_digital_financing_of_Sustainable_Development_Goals.html

UN Sustainable Development Goals
http://www.undp.org/content/undp/en/home/sustainable-development-goals.html

Do you know that MicroCapital publishes the MicroCapital Monitor newspaper each month? Find out more at https://www.microcapital.org/products-page/.