Billions of people around the world are responding to the COVID-19 pandemic using digital tools to work, spend and socialize. In August 2020, the UN Secretary’s Task Force on Digital Financing for the Sustainable Development Goals published a report on how digital tools could also support the financing of the SDGs and, ultimately, place citizens in control of finance and ensure that it meets their needs, today and in the future. Conscious FinTech contributed to the report by mapping the German Fintech companies that promote the SDGs.

We are proud to welcome Simon Zadek, Sherpa of the Task Force on Digital Financing, to learn more about his work experience and discuss what we – as individuals, entrepreneurs, businesses and investors – can do in order to contribute to achieving the SDGs through digital finance. Piet Kleffmann of the KfW will bring in his view of Germanys biggest development bank. There will be a Q&A, so bring your questions, and get engaged!

About the speakers:
Simon is an independent advisor and writer dedicated to sustainable economic development and sustainable business activity. Besides joining the UN’s Task Force on Digital Financing, he advises leading international organisations, such as the Centre for International Governance Innovation, the World Economic Forum, and the International Institute for Sustainable Development and co-directed the UNEP Inquiry into the Design of a Sustainable Financial System.

About The Task Force:
Established by the UN Secretary General António Guterres in 2018, the Task Force on Digital Financing of the SDGs was mandated to identify, recommend and catalyze ways to harness digitalization in accelerating financing of the SDGs. It brought together 17 leaders from across finance, technology, policy, regulation and international development and engaged with hundreds of financial institutions, governments and regulators, civil society organizations, think tanks and expert groups.
In its final report The People’s Money: Harnessing Digitalization to Finance a Sustainable Future, published in August 2020, the task force sets out an ambitious Action Agenda. Specifically, the task force identifies five catalytic opportunities for businesses, policy-makers and those governing finance to follow and deliver on these opportunities. Furthermore, it shows how digital finance can be used in ways that empower citizens as tax-payers and investors in envisaging a digital transformation at scale that better aligns people’s money with their needs, collectively expressed by the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).