The Global Steering Group for Impact Investment (GSG) is proud to announce the release of its recent report, ‘SDG-Driven Tech Innovation Ecosystems,’ launched at its 2023 Global Impact Summit.

The result of the GSG’s collaboration with partners in six EU countries (France, Italy, Portugal, Lithuania, Estonia, and Poland) and Israel on a two-year Horizon EU project, the report offers an in-depth exploration of how tech-based innovation ecosystems can be better harnessed for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Partners in France, Italy, Portugal, and Israel represent National Advisory Boards (NABs) for Impact Investing, independent national entities set up to advance impact investing in the respective countries. GSG has worked to set up 36 affiliated National Advisory Boards across the world.

Recognising the urgent need with less than seven years left to meet high-priority SDG targets, the consortium has developed a Building Blocks Framework, laying out the key features of best-in-class tech innovation ecosystems that could accelerate the SDGs implementation process.

In one example, The Israel Innovation Institute, a non-profit think tank enables and facilitates the development, testing, and demonstration of scalable, innovative solutions to global challenges—in fields such as healthcare, agriculture, transportation, and climate change.

Other best-in-class examples include Portugal, where the EU-backed Portugal Social Innovation initiative has mobilised €150 million and supports over 693 social innovation enterprises. In Italy,  which ranks highest globally in the number of ESG-aligned financial investments, the government-supported CDP Venture Capital SGR manages 12 investment funds and finances tech innovation linked to the SDGs.

Several more tech-based innovation ecosystems are presented in the report, which offers a rich overview of the opportunities to utilise new tech developments to accelerate progress towards achieving the 17 SDGs of the 2030 agenda.

Discover more in the report here.

A dedicated project webpage on the GSG website features ‘SDG Tech News,’ a selection of blogs on SDG-tech written by GSG highlighting emerging SDG-tech-related technologies, impact measurement and management practices for the SDGs, case studies, and further learnings picked up from the 7-country mapping study. The page also links to the mapping methodology used by consortium partners, making it available to any actor who wishes to carry out the same assessment of their own local ecosystem.