INTERVIEW
DECADE OF ACTION... OR LOST DECADE?
UNCDF Executive Secretary Preeti Sinha warns that the world faces a choice. Failing to deliver the Sustainable Development Goals will mean extreme poverty for billions By Axel Reiserer, OPEC Fund
OPEC Fund Quarterly : Our organizations signed a Memorandum of Understanding in late March to collaborate on sustainable financial solutions. What are your goals? Preeti Sinha: This decade will be remembered in one of two ways – either as the decade of action where we delivered on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for the world’s least developed countries (LDCs), or the lost decade of development. What will make the difference is whether we can deliver sustainable finance at scale for the communities and geographies where the development needs are greatest. Our expectation is that we can leverage our core competencies to ensure that we can collectively deliver and accelerate SDG achievement
OFQ : How did the COVID-19 pandemic influence your work and what will be the medium- and long-term impacts? PS: The worst impacts of COVID-19 were most likely to be experienced by the most vulnerable populations. When COVID-19 first emerged, the UNCDF had to quickly pivot in order to deploy its tools and services in favor of the markets we support, while also continuing to provide essential contributions to SDG achievement. We partnered with digital financial service providers and public sector organizations to tailor digital solutions that provided benefits and services to millions affected by the pandemic. We quickly repurposed our programs and launched an e-platform to deliver COVID-19 emergency grants to local levels of government –
us to use financing capabilities and instruments, including loans, guarantees and blended finance across areas of technical expertise. As we look to the future of our collaboration, the capital financing of the OPEC Fund alongside the unique development hybrid nature of the UNCDF can collectively scale- up innovative finance instruments and projects with both commercial and development potential that will accelerate SDG achievement in the areas where development needs are greatest.
for the LDCs, which we see as the frontier markets of today and the growth markets of tomorrow. OFQ : Where do you see complementary areas of work between our organizations and what are your priorities? PS: The UNCDF complements traditional grants and technical assistance with a capital mandate unique to the UN system that enables
creating a financing platform that could provide liquidity in days or weeks versus months or longer. And we restructured loans to enable borrowers to withstand
the harsh econ- omic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.
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