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Bappenas to act as SDG financing hub

National Development Planning Board (Bappenas) head Bambang Brodjonegoro, offered on Tuesday a forward-looking vision in which the body would play a greater role in harnessing the largely untapped potential of non-government financing to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG)

Marchio Irfan Gorbiano (The Jakarta Post)
Jakarta
Wed, December 19, 2018

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Bappenas to act as SDG financing hub

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span>National Development Planning Board (Bappenas) head Bambang Brodjonegoro, offered on Tuesday a forward-looking vision in which the body would play a greater role in harnessing the largely untapped potential of non-government financing to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG).

Bambang said Bappenas could act as an SDG financing hub, which would coordinate, facilitate and synergize the financing of innovation for SDG-related projects in the country, considering the multiple channels of non-government financing that have yet to be fully tapped into such as crowdfunding, zakat (alms) and philanthropic funds, among other sources.

“Considering the various potential sources for [SDG] financing, particularly non-government [financing], Bappenas would like to offer to act as an SDG financing hub,” he told a seminar on SDGs in Jakarta. “We would like to give ample room for anyone, both from the government or private sector, to produce new ideas for financing SDG-related projects.”

The proposed role would complement Bappenas’ current duties, which included deciding which government’s projects should be financed with state budget funds and which projects should be financed with private capital under public private partnership (PPP) schemes, Bambang added.

In addition to fostering an environment conducive to developing innovative financing to achieve the SDGs, he said the proposed hub’s role would also include matching the mobilized capital to certain projects that were considered in line with the SDGs.

Bambang emphasized the need to mobilize sources of funding from outside the state budget, considering the limited fiscal capability of the government to fulfill its obligations under the SDGs.

For example, the government needs US$359.2 billion in investment for infrastructure development, which is one of the SDGs, between 2015 and 2019, of which it has only been able to cover $148.2 billion, or 41.3 percent, according to data from the Center for Private Investment.

Bambang said that Bappenas was currently drafting the next Medium-Term Development Plan (RPJMN), a five-year national development plan that will span from 2020 to 2024, which would also contain the strategy to achieve the SDGs including potential sources of financing for the projects.

“In the [next] RPJMN it will be clear how much [investment] the government can provide to achieve the SDGs until 2024, and how much [investment] will be contributed from non-government [actors] from the private sector, civil society organizations and so on,” he said.

Deputy country director of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) Indonesia, Sophie Kemkhadze, said the “platform approach” was a way forward to achieve the SDGs, as neither governments nor private sector actors or civil society organizations could tackle the challenges independently of each other.

President of non-profit organization United in Diversity Mari Elka Pangestu said the long-term policy direction and certainty from the government would be vital to attract investment for SDG-related projects.

She said development priorities and long-term policy directions should be reflected in the government’s budget and in its policies.

Mari said it was also important that the government be able to present to investors details on the impacts investing in SDG-related projects would bring.

“The impacts [from the investments] should be measured because investors also look at that,” she said.

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