United Nations secretary general António Guterres has launched a global task force charged with recommending strategies to harness the potential of financial technology to advance the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The Task Force on Digital Financing consists of leaders from a range of sectors from both developed and developing countries. It is co-chaired by Maria Ramos, chief executive of the South African Absa Group and Achim Steiner, administrator of the United Nations Development Programme.

“We have already seen how technology has helped expand financial inclusion - itself an important goal - by 1.2 billion people in just six years,” said Guterres. “But we have only just begun to tap the potential of digital finance and investment to meet the broader agenda set forth in the Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Agreement on climate change.”

Steiner pointed to promising examples of FinTech-driven solutions that advance sustainability, from channeling personal savings into long-term investment vehicles, to using blockchain and tokenisation to support renewable energy developments.

“We need to understand how to harness digitalisation to direct the flows of capital to vital work linked to the SDGs, including areas from biodiversity to connecting rural economies with global market opportunities and which, to date, remain largely untouched by the FinTech revolution.”

The Task Force on Digital Financing will meet in Davos in January and is expected to present its preliminary report of recommendations to the secretary general next September.

It will be supported by a secretariat hosted within the United Nations Capital Development Fund which has extensive experience in digital finance globally. The work of the Task Force is made possible by financial contributions from the governments of Germany and Italy, through the Multi-Partner Trust Fund Building a Strategy for Financing the 2030 Agenda.

The Task Force’s membership includes experts from the investment community, capital markets, government and civil society, as well as leading banks and innovators in digital payments. Its members are as follows:

• Maiva Atalina Emma Ainuu-Enari, governor, Central Bank of Samoa
• Mats Granryd, director general, GSMA
• Piyush Gupta, chief executive and director, DBS Group
• Natalie Jabangwe, chief executive, EcoCash
• Xiandong (Eric) Jing, chief executive and executive chairman, Ant Financial Group
• Bradley Katsuyama, founder and chief executive, IEX
• Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, executive director, UN Women
• Ambareen Musa, founder and chief executive, Souqulmal
• Patrick Njoroge, governor, Central Bank of Kenya
• Richard Samans, managing director, World Economic Forum
• Liu Zhenmin, United Nations undersecretary general for Economic and Social Affairs
• Aurelie Adam Soule Zoumarou, minister of economy and communications, Government of Benin

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