Building Bridges Week (October 7-11, 2019) focused on collaboration between the finance and international development communities in Switzerland.
This first-of-its-kind event has raised the bar in terms of mobilizing Switzerland’s financial sector to step up its engagement on SDG financing.
The UN Office at Geneva (UNOG), through the SDG Lab, played an instrumental role in making this week happen: by raising the ambition; by brokering between both communities; and by bringing the SDGs at the centre.
Building Bridges Week featured over 30 events, organized by 50+ partners, with more than 1000 participants. In addition to the SDG Lab’s leading role in the week, other members of the UN system, such as UNCDF, UNDP and ITC, held events geared primarily at impact investment in small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
As the Week’s narrative builder, the SDG Lab ensured coherency of UN global messages focused on accelerating impact, SDG investments and the UN Secretary-General’s recent call for a Decade of Action to deliver the Global Goals.
The one-day Building Bridges Summit, held on October 10, served as the pinnacle of the Week. With statements by the President of the Swiss Confederation, the Director-General of UN Geneva, as well as the CEOs of UBS and Julius Baer and other influential voices, the financial community heard directly from their peers on the need to join efforts to finance the SDGs. Notably, the business case for the Global Goals was clearly presented as an opportunity and the chance for financial institutions to work with the UN and the broader international community in Geneva.
The Building Bridges Week is the product of a longer term, concerted effort to promote systemic collaboration between the finance and international development communities in Switzerland. The SDG Lab has been acting as a lead facilitator in building initiatives in Switzerland that would develop new or scale existing models of sustainable finance.
ICYMI: Building Bridges Daily Digest
During Building Bridges Week, daily summaries were circulated to all participants, providing highlights of the day. The summaries are available below:
Summit photo gallery
A selection of photos taken at the Building Bridges Summit are available on Flickr.