Sustainable Development Goals

Political empowerment is the largest gender gap globally — only 22.9 % of this gap has been closed to date. And this matters profoundly — because inclusive political leadership drives stronger governance, stability and resilience. The World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report 2025 shows that 68.8 % of the overall gender gap has now been closed — the fastest annual progress since the pandemic. Yet at the current pace, it will still take 123 years to reach full parity. #gendergap25 Across regions: * Middle East & North Africa: Within the region, Saudi Arabia is among the fastest moving countries globally. However, across the region political empowerment remains the lowest (10.5%)- but it is moving forward. Since 2006, it has more than tripled its political empowerment score. The UAE leads the region, with 37.2% political parity. Countries like Morocco, Egypt and Tunisia are also showing progress at ministerial and parliamentary levels. * Europe & North America: Leading the world — eight of the top ten countries globally are European. Iceland is number one, having closed 92.6 % of its overall gender gap and doubling its political empowerment score since 2006. Finland, Norway, Germany, Ireland, the UK and others show how policy and cultural change can shift the landscape. * Sub-Saharan Africa: Several lower-income countries outperform many wealthier peers. Namibia ranks 8th globally, having closed 81.1 % of its gender gap. South Africa and Rwanda also continue to lead in female parliamentary representation. * East Asia & Pacific: New Zealand is the region’s top performer and 5th globally, with 82.7 % closure. However, progress remains mixed across the region. * South & Central Asia: Standouts include Bangladesh and Armenia, where political empowerment and broader gender parity are advancing steadily. The lesson is clear: Political parity is not out of reach — but it requires intentional action: legal reforms, quotas, leadership pipelines, and cultural change. Countries across every region are showing what works.  Explore the full report: wef.ch/gendergap25

Today, we’re proud to release the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s latest white paper on climate and development. It offers a clear path for aligning investments to help the world’s poorest countries make faster, smarter progress toward shared global goals. The paper highlights how countries can tackle three imperatives: development, climate adaptation, and climate mitigation. By matching the right type of financing to the right investments, we can maximize impact, no matter the country's distinct needs. Take Ethiopia, a nation that has made remarkable strides but is now struggling under multiple crises—from climate shocks to health emergencies. For such countries, we need new approaches to funding—approaches that don’t pit climate action against human development. This paper outlines a blueprint for policymakers, donors, and institutions to work together, ensuring that resources are directed where they’ll make the most difference. It’s not just about funding more—it’s about funding better. https://lnkd.in/eaqf2GRb #GlobalDevelopment #ClimateFinance #DevelopmentFinance

SDGs as a framework for impact investment 🌎 The SDGs offer a universal reference point, but their utility for investors depends on how well they can be translated into actionable themes. Phenix Capital’s SDG–Impact Investing framework bridges this gap by mapping each goal to specific investment domains. This mapping reframes the SDGs not as abstract targets, but as investment-relevant categories — from financial inclusion and circular economy to clean transport and climate mitigation. It enables clearer capital deployment pathways within complex global agendas. Rather than treating all goals uniformly, the framework recognizes variance in capital flows. Goals such as SDG 7 (Clean Energy), SDG 9 (Industry & Innovation), and SDG 11 (Sustainable Cities) have attracted the largest volumes of committed capital, reflecting both maturity and scalability. Themes tied to social inclusion (e.g. access to education, gender lens investing, affordable housing) remain underfunded despite their structural relevance to long-term development and systemic resilience. Environmental goals are addressed through themes like ocean preservation, sustainable agriculture, water efficiency, and biodiversity — areas where alignment with regulatory and disclosure frameworks is increasingly critical. Blended finance and technical assistance (SDG 17) are positioned not as peripheral tools but as enablers to accelerate private capital participation in frontier markets and early-stage solutions. By aligning investments to themes rather than goals alone, the framework helps clarify intentionality, guide impact measurement, and strengthen portfolio coherence across multiple mandates. This approach is not just a classification exercise — it is a necessary step in moving from broad commitments to capital strategies that are both scalable and aligned with global outcomes. #sustainability #sustainable #business #esg #SDGs #impact #investment

I'm happy to share the release of the #WiSER White Paper, "Igniting a Global Sustainable Economy," following the impactful discussions at the WiSER Annual Forum during Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week - ADSW 2025. This report highlights the critical role of female entrepreneurs in driving climate solutions and provides actionable strategies to bridge gender gaps in finance, scalability, AI, mentorship, and accessibility—especially for women in the Global South. Why This Matters: Women-led ventures are key to unlocking innovation in sustainability, yet systemic barriers persist. This paper outlines 5 recommendations: 🔹 Increase Gender-Focused Investment : Boost funding, financial literacy, and microloans for female-led climate projects. 🔹 Scale Women-Led Ventures : Streamline policies and partnerships to accelerate growth. 🔹 Harness AI & Digital Tools: Bridge the AI literacy and access gap to empower business expansion. 🔹 Strengthen Mentorship and Networking: Build cross-sector collaborations to provide women with the resources to succeed. 🔹 Empower Women in the Global South : Address legal and financial barriers, invest in STEM education, and improve access to markets and resources. Dive into the full report below or on Masdar (Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company)’s website for insights on turning these strategies into action: https://lnkd.in/dyAFPEP2 Thanks again to my fellow roundtable participants: Lawratou Bah, CFA, Mirella Amalia Vitale, Natasha Shenoy, Hajar Alketbi, Manal B., Mariam Alnaqbi, Shaima Al Mulla

Did you know that companies with women on their boards are more likely to measure and disclose their products' carbon emissions?  In fact, 87% of companies with women on their boards engage in carbon emission management compared to only 58% of companies without. Women leaders are at the forefront of driving impactful change in Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) practices. Here are the factors that drive women directors’ disproportionate ESG impact:  🌿  Sound Environmental Management: Female directors strategically prioritize environmental sustainability, actively managing and enhancing their company's energy efficiency.  🌍 Impactful Insight:  Gender-balanced executive teams correlate with increased investments in renewable power generation, low-carbon products, and energy efficiency.  🌈  Social Inclusion Advocates: Companies with women on boards exhibit improved working conditions and robust employee benefits, elevating female labor participation within the organization. 🌟 Driving Social Change:  Female executives extend their impact beyond business, prioritizing social issues, employee well-being, and community welfare for a more inclusive, socially responsible corporate culture. My own personal experience bears testimony to this - one of the companies I serve on the board of is 75% female. I am inspired by each of our board discussions as we seamlessly weave our view on company performance with its ESG impact, focusing on sustainable practices and cultivating social inclusion. How have you seen women drive ESG initiatives? #WomenLeaders #ESGLeadership #BoardroomDiversity #SustainabilityChampions

As climate change accelerates, policymakers and researchers need immediate access to accurate, science-based data to inform critical decisions about natural climate solutions and forest conservation efforts. That's why the nonprofit CTrees developed the first global system to monitor, report, and verify (MRV) carbon stocks and land-use activities for every ecosystem on land, delivering critical data needs of policy and markets. In this blog, Aleena Ashary and Jules Marenghi explain how CTrees has used the cash funding and cloud credits from its 2024 Amazon Web Services (AWS) Imagine Grant to enhance the organization’s flagship Jurisdictional MRV (JMRV) tool. This free, open data platform provides precise annual measurements of carbon stocks, forest area, emissions, and land use activities—revolutionizing how governments and organizations track climate policy progress and develop jurisdictional carbon credit programs. https://lnkd.in/grmttxXD

Why is it that even in 2024, 1 in 3 women still experience some form of sexual harassment? Watch here: https://lnkd.in/dUtjtpt8 Gender violence remains rampant while we’re still grappling with legal limitations of our justice system. Could it be that a society built on and by the patriarchy isn’t made for 50% of the population? That those in power, who benefit from this don’t face the same challenges and choose to be indifferent. The inaccessibility of menstrual hygiene products and the prevalence of workplace policies that cater to a male-dominated standard further illustrate the systemic neglect of women’s needs. How can we ensure equity is the norm, not the exception? In this episode of Sustainable Tea with Shreya in collaboration with Women's Forum for the Economy & Society (A Publicis Groupe company), I sit down with Amanda Chong, a public international lawyer, poet, playwright, and social advocate, to discuss the ongoing struggle against gender violence, misogyny and the gap between law and mindset, solutions needed for women’s safety, health, particularly menstrual hygiene, and the importance of creating inclusive policies that reflect the diverse realities of our lives. #GenderEquality #Menstruation #WomenSafety #WomensRights #MenstrualHealth #GenderLaws #GenderViolence #Patriarchy

📢New Article 🌍 As COP29 unfolds in Baku, we get reminded that tackling today's planetary challenges will require a bold, collaborative approach rooted in #openscience. ➡️ At the heart of this effort are two foundational pillars: Data Commons and Data Stewardship. Together, they operationalize the FAIR principles (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable) and unlock the full potential of data to drive innovation and solutions. 🔑 Data Commons enable shared access to data, breaking silos and fostering global collaboration. They ensure that resources like climate data or generative AI training sets are equitably accessible, empowering diverse stakeholders to tackle our biggest challenges together. 🛡️ Data Stewardship ensures that data is made accessible for re-use responsibly, building trust and sustainability. Stewards play a vital role in safeguarding data integrity, enhancing transparency, and ensuring long-term usability and sustainability. 🤔 These twin pillars are critical to foster a more equitable, inclusive, and impactful data ecosystem that can accelerate progress toward addressing today's global polycrisis. 💻Read: https://lnkd.in/eXxnqSnK ✍️ With co-author Jean-Claude Burgelman 💻 See also: The need for climate data stewardship: 10 tensions and reflections regarding climate data governance: https://lnkd.in/eve6-X6N #COP29 #OpenScience #DataCommons #DataStewardship #FAIRprinciples #ClimateAction #Sustainability #AIforGood #Polycrisis

Excerpt: More than 850 million women and girls are living in countries rated as “very poor” for gender equality, says a new report, subjecting them to a litany of potential restrictions and abuses, including forced pregnancies, childhood marriage and bans from secondary education. The SDG Gender Index, published today by Equal Measures 2030, a coalition of NGOs, found that no country has, so far, achieved the promise of gender equality envisioned by the UN’s 2030 sustainable development goals (SDGs). Between 2019 and 2022, nearly 40% of countries – home to more than 1 billion women and girls – stagnated or declined on gender equality. #gender #genderequality #women #girls #rights

Read CODATA Data Science Journal's new paper on 'Global Disaster Data Master Directory (GDMD)' complementing existing disaster databases like EM-DAT and other United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) platforms (e.g., DesInventar, GAR) to support global hub for integrating diverse disaster data resources. EM-DAT focuses on historical disaster events, and UNDRR tools specialize in localized disaster loss trends; GDMD connects over 1,400 datasets globally, enabling interoperability across scattered resources. It supports real-time, historical, and predictive data and adheres to #FAIR principles, offering human-readable and machine-accessible interfaces. GDMD's search feature allows unified access to multiple data sources to make a one-stop solution for disaster metadata aggregation. It's built on open-source technology (e.g., pycsw) and open standards, ensuring seamless collaboration with future platforms. It bridges gaps by enabling metadata exchange across databases like NASA FIRMS, DesInventar, and Munich RE. It is good disaster-related knowledge that integrates geospatial data, AI-ready resources, and climate projections for improving disaster monitoring, resilience planning, and response in line with the Sendai Framework goals. Simon Hodson, International Science Council Full paper here https://lnkd.in/g8dhhkVm Open Source Code available at GitHub: https://lnkd.in/gHzSXx4f