M&G Says Covid-19 Hinders UN Goals Central to Impact Investing

(Bloomberg) -- Covid-19 is hindering progress towards achieving the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals -- lofty ambitions for a fairer and clearer world that have become the bedrock of the $715 billion market for impact investing -- according to M&G.

The London-based asset manager said in a report that 12 of the 17 SDGs are “materially behind schedule” with the socio-economic targets most affected. The development goals, which include the eradication of extreme poverty and hunger, as well enabling clean water, green energy and gender equality, improving access to education and a host of other topics, were adopted by U.N. member states in 2015 and are intended to be met by 2030.

The coronavirus has dealt a double blow to health and the economy, with the most vulnerable worst affected. The pandemic has pushed more than 71 million people into extreme poverty in 2020, the first increase in decades, and resulted in increased violence against women and girls. It also poses a threat to food systems and has interrupted child immunization programs and access to education since remote learning remains out of reach for more than 500 million students.

“Progress towards the global goals has been inconsistent and was off-course before the pandemic, with the resultant crisis further adding to the need for urgent action,” said Ben Constable-Maxwell, M&G’s head of sustainable and impact investing. “Overall, we need to boost efforts across every aspect of the SDGs, supported by deep collaboration across the entire system.”

While many of the SDGs may appear more like political objectives, Veronique Chapplow, investment director of the M&G Positive Impact Fund, said a number of impact-orientated money managers have incorporated the SDGs into their investment strategies and use them as “an intuitive framework to guide the allocation of capital towards sustainable and societally positive investments.”

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