# **D. SDG-specific or sector-specific estimates**

Several WBG studies estimate the cost of meeting specific SDGs or meeting goals related to specific sectors:<sup>9,10</sup>

- _Hunger, food security, nutrition, and sustainable agriculture (SDG 2)._ Additional financing of $11.8 billion per year may be required to scale up a set of 13 proven nutrition interventions to universal coverage in the 36 countries that account for 90 percent of children who are stunted due to inadequate nutrition (Horton et al. 2010). From a regional perspective, financing needs are highest in South Asia ($5.9 billion) and Sub-Saharan Africa ($2.8 billion). Financing needs may be underestimated if malnutrition is due to poor sanitation and hygiene conditions. Another study finds that achieving SDG target 2.2, on stunting, will require $5 billion per year during 2016–25 in low- and middle-income countries (Shekar et al. 2017).

- _Water and sanitation (SDG 6)._ An estimated $74 billion to $166 billion per year of spending on water, sanitation, and hygiene services will be needed during 2015–30 (0.26– 0.55 percent of global GDP) to meet targets 6.1 and 6.2 of SDG 6 on clean water and sanitation (Hutton and Varughese 2016). The range is developed through different assumptions about policy choices. As a share of regional GDP, the cost is estimated to be highest in Sub-Saharan Africa (1.3–2.7 percent) and South Asia (0.5–1.1 percent). Additional spending will be required to reach the remaining targets under SDG 6, such as wastewater treatment and environmental water quality (SDG 6.3).

- _Energy (SDG 7)._ The investment required to achieve three targets related to SDG 7 (universal access to modern energy services, doubled energy efficiency, doubled share of renewable energy) has been estimated to be at least $600 billion to $800 billion per year over and above existing levels (Angelou et al. 2013). This would imply a doubling or tripling of financing for the sector.

- _Climate action (SDG 13)._ The cost to developing economies of adapting to global warming of 2<sup>o</sup> C has been estimated at $70 billion to $100 billion per year (Narain, Margulis, and Essam 2011). In 2016, an analysis conducted by the International Finance Corporation (IFC) found $23 trillion in climate smart investment opportunities (or gaps) in 21 emerging economies by 2030 (IFC 2016).<sup>11</sup>

> 9 Granular cost estimates are critical for costing exercises. For example, the WBG’s Road Costs Knowledge System (ROCKS) records costs related to road-related projects by the WBG, the African Development Bank, and the Asian Development Bank. The database provides unit costs for comparable road work activities for SDG9-related costing exercises (Collier, Kirchberger, and Söderbom 2016; Bosio et al. 2018).

> 10 Existing studies are skewed toward evaluating the cost of infrastructure-related SDGs, for which costs are more quantifiable than SDGs that will be achieved chiefly through policy change, such as gender equality (SDG 5) and reducing inequality (SDG 10). Other SDGs, such as those on health and quality education (SDGs 3 and 4), have incomplete costing estimates at the regional or global level due to the lack of data. For instance, a limited number of countries regularly and consistently report health-related spending, leading most global costing studies to make assumptions that result in estimates with wide margins of error.

> 11 This analysis was followed by a series of reports examining climate smart investment opportunities in particular sectors (IFC 2017a), regions (e.g., South Asia, IFC 2017b), and subsectors (e.g., in cities, IFC 2018).

9