Business Day: Private sector support for achieving critical development goals is a huge opportunity for business
Mark Suzman, chief strategy officer and president, global policy & advocacy at the Gates Foundation

“It’s difficult to understand an enormous number such as $2.5 trillion. To put it in context, it’s about the size of France’s economy — the seventh largest in the world. It’s also the amount of money we need to find every year [to fill a gap] to ensure the world meets the ambitious sustainable development goals to end global poverty, hunger and inequality. … The public sector, donors and philanthropists obviously have a big role to play in closing this financing gap. But so does the private sector. In fact, private sector investment in the Sustainable Development Goals is a huge opportunity for business, one that could open up $1.1 trillion in market opportunities in Africa alone and make life-altering strides towards achieving critical goals. … We need to close the financing gap, but the need for private sector involvement isn’t about money. It’s also about the skills and competencies the private sector brings to the field. Its ability is to fast-track innovation, eliminate inefficiencies, scale rapidly, and provide sustained interventions. These capabilities make the private sector a critical partner in solving development challenges…” (9/24).