BOX 8. The SDG investor mapping process in Rwanda The SDG investor mapping was rolled out in Rwanda from February 2020 to July 2021. It identified 13 Investment opportunity areas including in the food and beverage, health-care, education or renewable resources sectors. UNDP Rwanda led a large data-collection effort. UNDP, with support from PwC, studied the country’s policies, contacted policymakers, including from the Rwanda Development Board, the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning, the trade ministry and the Private Sector Federation; carried out a COVID-19 analysis; and followed the eight steps of the SDG investor map methodology. The next identified steps were to advertise and inform potential national and international investors. The official launch meeting is planned before the end of the year and could involve Japanese investors that were already involved in the Ghana SDG investors map. It was mentioned that the process could have better involved national institutions such as the Rwanda Development Board – the government institution with a mandate to accelerate Rwanda’s economic development by enabling private sector growth – in order to strengthen their capacities.
Islamic finance Finding 14. Islamic finance has potential to align investment with financing for the Sustainable Development Goals. One of the most promising areas for Islamic finance to synchronize with the Goals is on climate action. Despite the potential, results achieved in this area are still limited. Islamic finance has become a growing source of funding for development. According to the Islamic Financial Services Board, the Islamic finance industry’s assets grew to $2.7 trillion in 2020 from $2.44 trillion in 2019.174 Sukuk is one of the fastest growing segments of the Islamic finance industry.175 From the first sovereign sukuk issued by Bahrain in 2001, a number of countries (Malaysia, Pakistan, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates (Dubai)) followed suit, which drew international attention to sukuk and set the stage for the global growth of the sector. By 2020, the value of outstanding sukuk had risen to $690 billion compared to about $7 billion in 2004.176 As outlined above, this is an area where UNDP has offered valuable support through the green sukuk support in Indonesia. UNDP engages with Islamic finance through a range of interventions, from project identification, implementation and impact reporting to capacity-building through workshops, research and policy recommendations. Islamic finance is one of the two pillars in the impact investing workstream of the UNDP Istanbul International Center for Private Sector in Development. In 2016, UNDP and the Islamic Development Bank created the Global Islamic Finance and Impact Investing Platform, which aims at creating synergies between Islamic finance and impact investing to finance the SDGs. Within Islamic finance, green sukuk is the area where UNDP has worked the most. In addition to the Indonesia green sukuk experience, UNDP through the green sukuk Initiative implemented by the platform also provided support to Turkey, Pakistan and Uzbekistan.
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Islamic Financial Services Board. 2021. Islamic Financial Services Industry Stability Report. Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, June. © 2021 Islamic Financial Services Board. Sukuk are similar to bonds in the conventional market, but while bonds represent a debt that the issuer owes to the bondholders, sukuk certificates represent the investors’ ownership interest in the underlying sukuk asset, business, enterprise or project which entitles them to receive a share of the income generated thereby. Islamic Financial Services Board. 2021. Islamic Financial Services Industry Stability Report. Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, June. © 2021 Islamic Financial Services Board.
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