Sustainable Development Report 2019 further recommends reshaping both national and international financial systems in line with sustainable development (United Nations 2019).

The WBG’s Maximizing Finance for Development approach is helping to fill SDG financing gaps by attracting private sector financing and solutions to development challenges. Consistent with the broader view of financing identified in the 2015 paper, the WBG introduced its “Cascade” approach (Development Committee 2017a). The approach aims to mobilize private sources of financing for infrastructure development and address relevant policy constraints prior to tapping public financing from domestic or international sources. Under the WBG’s Maximizing Finance for Development (MFD) approach, the institution systematically leverages financing, expertise, and policy solutions from all sources (public and private) for its client countries <mark>(Development Committee 2017b).</mark><sup>23</sup> The effort to increase and broaden the sources of development-related financing has been undertaken across the institution. Under an expanded set of resources under IDA18, IDA is contributing to the advancement of the SDG agenda in the poorest countries. The IFC is helping to strengthen policy frameworks, promote competition, and develop local capital markets through its Creating Markets strategy.<sup>24</sup> Private sector involvement is especially relevant to SDGs in sectors in which goods and services are produced partially or completely by the private sector (e.g., energy).

The WBG plays a critical role in facilitating financing vehicles with private components. For instance, the WBG has a long history of helping arrange public-private partnerships (PPPs) for financing the physical and human investment needed to achieve the SDGs. In the infrastructure sector, the WBG tracks private investment at the country and sectoral levels and evaluates the quality of the regulatory framework for PPPs, through its Private Participation in Infrastructure Database. For the past 10 years, the WBG’s green bonds have helped the private sector invest in projects related to climate change (SDG 13), mostly for renewable energy and clean transportation (World Bank 2018i). More recently, the WBG has begun issuing sustainable development bonds focused on clean water and sanitation (SDG 6), life below water (SDG 14), and gender issues (SDG 5), and has been active in promoting green _sukuk_ . The IFC’s Managed Co-Lending Portfolio Program has mobilized financing from the private sector for SDG-related projects. The Pandemic Emergency Financing Facility is an example of the WBG’s effort to partner with the private sector for global public good.

The WBG has also made efforts to systemize the SDG financing dialogue with investors at the highest level and formulate concrete action to promote sustainable investments. In early 2019, the IFC launched its “Operating Principles for Impact Management,” a market standard for managing investment funds developed in consultation with major asset managers and development finance

> 23 The Maximizing Finance for Development approach has been used in a range of countries and sectors—for instance, in agricultural value chains (World Bank 2018j).

> 24 The WBG’s Independent Evaluation Group found that the Creating Markets strategy has been successful in making markets more inclusive, competitive, and sustainable in an evaluation of 16 case studies (World Bank 2019d).

17