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UN / SDGS DIGITAL FINANCING
STORY: UN / SDGS DIGITAL FINANCING
TRT: 01:55
SOURCE: UNIFEED
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGES: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 26 AUGUST 2020, NEW YORK CITY / FILE
FILE - NEW YORK CITY
1. Wide shot, United Nations Headquarters
26 AUGUST 2020, NEW YORK CITY
2. SOUNDBITE (English) António Guterres, Secretary-General, United Nations:
“So, I fully endorse the Task Force’s vision of citizen-centric finance, and its conclusion that the digitalization of finance must be inclusive and empowering so that it becomes a force for good. Currently, 3.6 billion people worldwide – including a disproportionate number of women – lack the resources and capabilities to take advantage of the digital world.”
FILE - NEW YORK CITY
3. Close up, United Nations flag
26 AUGUST 2020, NEW YORK CITY
4. SOUNDBITE (English) António Guterres, Secretary-General, United Nations:
“Digitalization must democratize the governance of finance, in order to democratize finance itself. Developing countries need and deserve a much greater role in formulating the policies and decisions that will impact their citizens.”
FILE - NEW YORK CITY
5. Close up, United Nations flag
26 AUGUST 2020, NEW YORK CITY
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Achim Steiner, Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP):
“Digitalization is already a force for good and aligned with finance of people’s needs. We have come across so many extraordinary examples pioneering, sometimes small-scale, sometimes literally transforming an entire sector. Imagine for a moment a farming cooperative connected to a digital marketplace where it sells produce, its members are able to access financing based on their transaction history and they can get insured against climate-risk with automatic pay-out in the moment of a disaster. This is not science fiction. It is happening.”
FILE - NEW YORK CITY
7. Close up, United Nations flag
26 AUGUST 2020, NEW YORK CITY
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Achim Steiner, Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP):
“I think COVID-19 has taught us one very dramatic lesson. Things that we might have anticipated last December to begin to occur in three or five years-time, are suddenly being fast-forwarded. Governments, the private sector, technology companies, are literally implementing in a matter of weeks what some thought was a kind of a future perspective.”
Digital financing is key to getting the SDGs back on track from the social and economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a new report, “People’s Money: Harnessing Digitalization to Finance a Sustainable Future”, released by the Secretary-General’s Task Force on Digital Finance today (26 Aug).
At the lunch of the report, Secretary-General António Guterres endorsed “the Task Force’s vision of citizen-centric finance, and its conclusion that the digitalization of finance must be inclusive and empowering so that it becomes a force for good.”
The Secretary-General noted that “currently, 3.6 billion people worldwide – including a disproportionate number of women – lack the resources and capabilities to take advantage of the digital world.”
Guterres said, “digitalization must democratize the governance of finance, in order to democratize finance itself.”
Developing countries, he added, “need and deserve a much greater role in formulating the policies and decisions that will impact their citizens.”
The Task Force, led by UN development chief Achim Steiner, and made up of senior figures from the tech sector, financial institutions, governments, and UN bodies, was set up by the Secretary-General in 2018 to improve understanding of the benefits and risks of the fast-moving financial technology and digital finance sectors.
Steiner said, “digitalisation is already a force for good and aligned with finance of people’s needs.”
He said, “imagine for a moment a farming cooperative connected to a digital marketplace where it sells produce, its members are able to access financing based on their transaction history and they can get insured against climate-risk with automatic pay-out in the moment of a disaster. This is not science fiction. It is happening.”
Steiner said, “COVID-19 has taught us one very dramatic lesson. Things that we might have anticipated last December to begin to occur in three or five years-time, are suddenly being fast-forwarded. Governments, the private sector, technology companies, are literally implementing in a matter of weeks what some thought was a kind of a future perspective.”
The initiative is part of the UN chief’s strategy to support financing for the 2030 Agenda, the UN’s blueprint for a better future, for people and the planet. The shift to digital, the report says, could provide the means to meet projected costs, estimated to be between five and seven trillion US dollars per year.
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