UNDP Turkey and UNDP’s Istanbul International Center for Private Sector in Development (IICPSD) conducted a training focusing on opportunities in SDG-anchored investing for policymakers, development professionals and finance experts.

Developed as part of SDG Investment Initiative, the training modules included the 2030 sustainable development agenda, key trends in SDG investing, best practices and potential investment opportunities in the market.

The three-day training in early November allowed participants to learn more on impact investing, its contribution to achievement of SDGs, SDG-anchored investments focusing on the investment opportunity areas identified in SDG Investor Map Turkey, and measuring, assessing, communicating, reporting and interpreting impact.

“As UNDP, we are committed to advancing enabling environments in developing countries to nurture functioning SDG investment ecosystems to mobilize private financing for SDGs,” said Gülçin Salıngan, the Deputy Director of IICPSD, at the opening session of the training.

“To unlock much needed capital to accelerate SDG progress in Turkey, we stepped up our efforts to raise awareness around SDG investing among stakeholders," added Seher Alacacı Arıner, the Assistant Resident Representative of UNDP Turkey.

The training program focused on the role of policymakers in building an SDG-friendly investment environment and public-private-partnerships as a modality for promoting private sector engagement in development-oriented areas, showcasing global good practices in public-private partnerships, and exploring risk mitigation strategies.

Participants had an opportunity to analyse financing models, mechanisms, and good practices in the impact investing ecosystem, and addressed how to measure, manage, and communicate the integrated impact and financial performance of investments. The programme covered how SMEs can grow their businesses and access potential investors aligned with their SDG strategies and showcased private sector-led good practices and explored opportunities and risk mitigation strategies.

UNDP Turkey and the IICPSD initiated the “SDG Investment Initiative” to operationalize the outputs of the SDG Investor Map and the impact investing ecosystem study in Turkey to address the challenges impeding the flow of private capital towards the achievement of the SDGs and create an enabling environment for facilitating the SDG-anchored investments in Turkey.

The SDG investment training will be repeated in December 2021 and January 2022.