Fund Dates

• Start Date: 2 June 2017
• End Date:   31 December 2030

Reports

• 2018 Annual Narrative Progress Report
• 2018 Annual Financial Progress Report
• 2018 Certified Financial Statement (Sources and Uses of Funds)

Key Documents

1st Call for Concept Notes (Integrated Policy - Leave No One Behind / Social Protection)

• Joint Fund Operations Manual
• Joint Fund Terms of Reference

• Joint Fund Standard Administrative Arrangement - SAA
• Joint Fund Memorandum of Understanding - MoU

Overview

The first of its kind in the United Nations, the Joint SDG Fund is an inter-agency, pooled mechanism for strategic financing and integrated policy support. The Fund supports programmes that work across all 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and cross-cutting areas so programme countries can accelerate progress towards attaining the SDGs and 2030 Agenda.

Collaborate. Invest. Accelerate.

Joint SDG Fund initiatives are built on a foundation of integrated policy support, innovative financing, and sustainable development–programmes are ambitious and not relegated to silos. The Fund supports United Nations Resident Coordinators, UN Country Teams (UNCTs), and national partners as they adopt these integrated approaches, which spur policy change, create robust financing systems, and lead to SDG achievement.

As a country-focused instrument, the Fund champions collective efforts at country and multi-country levels, with the next generation of UNCTs and Resident Coordinators at the helm of this transformation. Pooled expertise from across all sectors will result in the development and growth of new coalitions. These “change makers” will use scalable finance and integrated policies to advance inclusive initiatives that accelerate multiple SDGs and cross-cutting issues like human rights, environment, youth, and gender.

Programmatic framework

 The aim of the Fund is to incentivize integrated and transformative policy shifts at the country-level through collective action. Resident Coordinators/UNCTs will be supported as they create SDG strategic investments both in terms of integrated policy and financing that enable governments to cover more distance on the road to 2030.

Resources and policy expertise will be mobilized from multiple sources within and outside the UN Development System to:

• Identify and activate SDG “accelerators” through an integrated approach that leads to rapid progress across different goals/targets based on data, assessments, and analyses carried out by partners at national, regional, and global levels.

• Reinforce current SDG financing architecture and/or establish robust financing strategies for SDG investment. This includes, establishing and nurturing networks with partners (e.g. governments, development banks, institutional investors, etc.), strengthening national and sub-national SDG financing systems, and elaborating multi-stakeholder financing strategies that increase the scale of SDG investments.

Using strategic and inclusive finance strategies to activate SDG accelerators will allow the United Nations to mobilize programming and investments by supporting initiatives that accelerate SDG progress and attract public and private financing to advance the 2030 Agenda.

Initiatives will produce concrete results that can be scaled up in-country and elsewhere.

The Fund’s global membership is comprised of representatives from financial contributors, programme countries, and leading international think tanks, development organizations, the private sector, and policy research centres.

Governance structure, decision making, and management

 Strategic Advisory Group

The Joint SDG Fund is led by the Strategic Advisory Group, which is chaired by the United Nations Deputy Secretary-General and Chair of the United Nations Sustainable Development Group (UNSDG). The Strategic Advisory Group is a high-level mechanism that will provide leadership, vision and strategic direction for the Fund, and also facilitate stakeholder consultation (among United Nations organizations, partner countries, contributing Member States, the private sector and civil society), recommend strategic priorities, and take stock of overall Fund progress.

Operational Steering Committee

Under the direction of the Strategic Advisory Group, the Operational Steering Committee is responsible for the effective and efficient management and coordination of operational, oversight, and technical aspects of the Joint SDG Fund. Its priority is to ensure the Joint SDG Fund remains a timely, fast, and flexible instrument for responding to country needs. Coordination and technical support for the Fund is the responsibility of the Joint SDG Fund Secretariat, which is hosted by the United Nations Development Operations Coordination Office (UN DOCO).

The Operational Steering Committee and Joint SDG Fund Secretariat draw on the technical expertise from the entire United Nations Development System. Based on the strategic direction set by the Strategic Advisory Group it oversees calls for concepts submitted by RCs/UNCTs. The Operational Steering Committee supervises the development of full proposals and agrees on funding allocations. This guides the Secretariat in requesting fund transfers from the Multi Partner Trust Fund Office, as Administrative Agent to Participating United Nations Organizations—subject to United Nations regulations, rules, policies and procedures.

Administrative Agent

Capital for joint fund programmes is routed via a pass-through mechanism where participating UN Organizations receive funds through the Administrative Agent, which is the Multi-Partner Trust Fund (MPTF) Office.

The Administrative Agent is responsible for concluding the memorandum of understanding with Participating UN Organizations and Standard Administrative Arrangements with donors. The MPTF Office receives, administers, and manages contributions from donors, disburses funds to Participating UN Organizations, and consolidates financial reports produced by each Participating UN Organization. Reports are submitted to the Joint SDG Fund Steering Committee, which are then forwarded to donors.

All joint programmes are expected to follow United Nations Development Group (UNDG) joint programme procedures and will be forwarded to the Joint SDG Fund Board for final approval.