Collaboration is Key for Unlocking SDG Progress

The UN's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are a roadmap to a more equitable and sustainable future. While progress has been made, many targets are off track to meet the 2030 deadline. To accelerate the advancement, the UN introduced the concept of "transformations." These transformations group the 17 SDGs into six interrelated long-term goals, like achieving universal health access or zero-carbon energy systems. This approach recognizes the interconnectedness of these challenges and aims to drive faster progress by focusing on broader systems changes.

A recent study by researchers at the Amundi Investment Institute titled “About SDGs, reading the manual with NLP” leveraged Natural Language Processing (NLP), to analyze the connections between the SDGs and these transformations. Interestingly, the analysis revealed a crucial role for SDG17: Partnership for the Goals, which highlights the importance of collaboration between developed and developing countries in achieving these ambitious transformations.

The analysis revealed a crucial role for SDG17: Partnership for the Goals, which highlights the importance of collaboration between developed and developing countries in achieving these ambitious transformations.

One powerful tool for fostering such partnerships is Foreign Direct Investment (FDI). The study emphasizes the importance of "North-South" FDIs, where developed countries invest in developing nations. These investments not only create new market opportunities for companies but also bridge the financing gap that hinders progress in developing countries. The research also utilized real-world data analysis to assess whether companies are actually contributing to closing financing gaps in developing countries.

Bridging the Theory-Action Gap with RavenPack Data

While NLP analysis offers valuable insights into how the SDGs connect with the transformations framework, it remains a theoretical exercise. To bridge the gap and assess real-world corporate behavior, the researchers went beyond text analysis and leveraged news analytics data from RavenPack.

By analyzing news related to companies in the MSCI World Index (a major developed market index) from 2017 to 2024, RavenPack identified a massive dataset – over 77 million events. These events, likely news articles and press releases, were then used to create a metric called "Share of Events in the News" (SoN).

SoN essentially measures the proportion of news coverage focused on a company's activities in developing countries compared to its overall news presence. This metric sheds light on a company's potential commitment to SDG17, which emphasizes partnerships with developing nations.

The Call to Action: Investors and Companies

The research presents a compelling case for integrating the SDGs into investment strategies. “We hope that asset managers will keep their universes open to the emerging and frontier markets, explore opportunities in blended finance and seek out ways to incorporate the relevant considerations into their engagement efforts”, conclude the authors.

We hope that asset managers will keep their universes open to the emerging and frontier markets, explore opportunities in blended finance and seek out ways to incorporate the relevant considerations into their engagement efforts.

By leveraging NLP and other data analysis tools, investors can gain deeper insights into how companies are contributing to sustainable development. Companies, on the other hand, are encouraged to prioritize partnerships with developing countries through targeted "North-South" FDIs.