The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has announced an alliance with the top reporting entities to establish Sustainability Disclosure Management Hubs (SDMHs) in more than 14 developing economies in Latin America, Asia, the Caribbean, and Africa, between 2024 and 2025.
The objectives of the SDMH initiative will be to develop local expertise in SDMH, ensure sustainability developments are aligned with countries' development, and assist countries in creating sustainable disclosures.
This initiative may help asset managers, private equity and credit firms, and impact investors to make better-educated investment decisions on sustainability issues due to increased transparency regarding companies' sustainability practices and risks.
Let's discuss the partnership between UNDP, IFRS, GSG Impact, ISO, and GRI in detail.
Key aspects of the SDMH partnership
- The SDMH partnership will support the adoption of international standards that improve the sustainability disclosures of companies around the world, including GRI Standards, IFRS S1, IFRS S2, and ISO management standards.
- The new SDMH initiative expands on the existing partnership between UNDP and IFRS foundation’s ISSB, which was established in COP27 in 2022
- The SDMH partnership initiative will facilitate the adoption of sustainability disclosures and management standards.
- In 2024, UNDP will execute the pilot projects in six emerging economies, including Latin America, Asia, the Caribbean, and Africa, based on the given categories.
- The projects on these partnership initiatives will aim to perform capacity building, development of regulations, stock exchange guidance, and national development priorities.
- In 2025, the SDMH initiative will expand to eight additional countries, covering over 14 countries in the overall program.
- UNDP is leading the establishment of SDMHs to execute projects in collaboration with UNDP Financial Centres for Sustainability (FCS4).
Jingdong Hua, Vice-Chair of ISSB said “The introduction of the ISSB Standards globally can help deliver decision-useful, consistent and comparable information to investors globally, advancing the understanding of the sustainability-related risks and opportunities companies face.”
While you’re here…
Initiatives such as this one by the UNDP may help institutional investors and corporates streamline sustainability evaluation and reporting processes.
However, aligning issues, controversies, and impacts to these standards can require significant time and expertise. These are areas where Auquan can help.
Auquan automates and streamlines deal sourcing, due diligence, monitoring, ESG/sustainability, and compliance workflows so teams can move faster and more efficiently. Using advanced AI, Auquan generates material and sustainability insights on any entity worldwide — public or private — fine-tuned for your team's investment and lending requirements.
Let's explore how Auquan can help you and your team eliminate tedious and time-consuming manual data work and focus more on what you do best: making strategic decisions ahead of the market.
