Skip to main content
UCL Logo Navigate back to homepage

Main navigation

  • Home
  • Study

    Study

    • Study at UCL
    • Prospective students
    • Current students
    • Accommodation
    • Careers
    • Doctoral School
    • Immigration and visas
    • Student finances
    • Support and wellbeing
  • Research

    Research

    • Research at UCL
    • Engage with us
    • Explore our Research
    • Initiatives and networks
    • Research news
  • Engage

    Engage

    • Engage with UCL
    • Alumni
    • Business partnerships and collaboration
    • Global engagement
    • News and Media relations
    • Policy and political engagement
    • Schools and priority groups
    • Give to UCL
  • About

    About

    • About UCL
    • Who we are
    • Faculties
    • Governance
    • President and Provost
    • Strategy
    • UCL's Bicentenary
  • UCL Logo Active parent page: UCL Bartlett Faculty of the Built Environment
    • Study
    • Active parent page: Research
    • Our schools and institutes
    • People
    • Ideas
    • Engage
    • News and Events
    • About

Financing the Sustainable Development Goals through mission-oriented development banks

Authored by Professor Mariana Mazzucato

undesa_thumbnail.png

Breadcrumb trail

  • UCL Bartlett Faculty of the Built Environment

Faculty menu

  • Research projects
  • Current page: Research publications
  • REF 2021
  • Ethics in the built environment
  • Impact at The Bartlett
  • UCL Royal Academy of Engineering, Centre of Excellence in Sustainable Building Design
  • The Building Envelope Research Network
  • UCL Circularity Hub

Breadcrumb trail

  • UCL Bartlett Faculty of the Built Environment
  • Research
  • Financing the Sustainable Development Goals through mission-oriented development banks

This policy brief is part of the UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose’s (UCL IIPP) publication series.

Explore more working papers and policy reports here.

 

Download the policy brief 

UN DESA Policy Brief Special issue

Financing the Sustainable Development Goals through mission-oriented development banks

There is an urgent need for channeling long-term risk-tolerant finance towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. The paper argues that National Development Banks (NDBs) and Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs) can play a crucial role in mobilizing the needed capital but only if an outcomes oriented ‘mission-oriented’ approach is adopted to galvanize, catalyze, and crowd in substantial global public and private finance (scaling it up from billions to trillions). Missions help transform broad SDG related challenges, like global health and climate change, into investment pathways where strong publicly set goals crowd in private investment. Key is to make sure that strong conditions around reciprocity determine equitable and just partnerships and direct public and private finance towards inclusive and sustainable outcomes. Low-income countries which continue to face stringent international credit conditions can benefit from diverting resources from debt repayment towards development goals, while high-income countries can unlock financialised and hoarded capital for sustainable development.

Authors

  • Mariana Mazzucato | Director and Professor in the Economics of Innovation and Public Value UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose

Reference

Mazzucato, Mariana (2023). Financing the Sustainable Development Goals through mission-oriented development banks. UN DESA Policy Brief Special issue. New York: UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs; UN High-level Advisory Board on Economic and Social Affairs; University College London Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose. September.

This policy brief is part of the UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose’s (UCL IIPP) publication series.

Explore more working papers and policy reports here.

UCL footer

Visit

  • Bloomsbury Theatre and Studio
  • Library, Museums and Collections
  • UCL Maps
  • UCL Shop
  • Contact UCL

Students

  • Accommodation
  • Current Students
  • Moodle
  • Students' Union

Staff

  • Inside UCL
  • Staff Intranet
  • Work at UCL
  • Human Resources
UCL Logo

University College London, Gower Street, London, WC1E 6BT

Tel: +44 (0) 20 7679 2000

UCL social media menu

  • Link to Instagram
  • Link to LinkedIn
  • Link to Youtube
  • Link to TikTok
  • Link to Facebook
  • Link to Bluesky
  • Link to Threads
  • Link to Soundcloud
Here, it can happen.
Back to top

Essential

  • Disclaimer
  • Freedom of Information
  • Accessibility
  • Cookies
  • Privacy
  • Slavery statement
  • Log in

© 2026 UCL