I am passionate about financing the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and have worked on many different aspects of development finance over the last fifteen years. It is a dynamic and exciting field in which to work! Current areas of interest for me include how to align far larger shares of international public and private finance with international public policy objectives such as those embodied in the SDGs. What incentives, policies and innovative finance models can help to achieve these aims? What do current trends in development finance mean for financing the SDGs? And how can finance meet the scale of ‘new’ and emerging challenges, such as the climate crisis, urbanisation, advances in new technologies and major demographic shifts? I am also interested in the expanding field of ‘ethical’ and impact investment, and in how cities can finance the SDGs.
My work covers areas such as development aid, innovative finance and impact investment, debt, tax and the broader international financial architecture and how it can be an ‘enabler’ of sustainable development. I have also carried out considerable work over recent years on financing for development in small island states, including in the area of blue economy financing. The views expressed on this website are mine and are not necessarily those of my current or past employers.
On this website, I have tried to categorise different research, stories and opinion pieces as best I can. In many cases, divisions are by no means neat! So please have a look around and let me know if you have questions, feedback or are interested in a particular area.
Enjoy! Gail
Gail Hurley 