Women, Business and the Law 2024: Breaking Down Barriers to Achieve Gender Equality
Women, Business and the Law 2024 This year’s report, the 10th in the series, finds that women worldwide continue to have fewer legal rights than men and that the weak implementation of gender equality laws exacerbates gender gaps. For the first time...
European Commission launched AI innovation package to support Artificial Intelligence startups and SMEs
On 24 January, the Commission has launched a package of measures to support European startups and SMEs in the development of trustworthy Artificial Intelligence (AI) that respects EU values and rules. This follows the political agreement reached in Decemb...
Promoting International Investment by Small and Medium-sized Enterprises
Small and medium-size enterprises (SMEs) are important contributors to economic development, representing a substantial portion of businesses globally. Global markets offer SMEs opportunities for growth, diversification and resilience. Access to internati...
Six global trends that show how to support female entrepreneurs
Although women make up roughly one-half of the world’s population, they only contribute to 37% of global GDP. And so encouraging more women to become entrepreneurs is not just important for making economies more fair, it could actually increase global ...
Financing SMEs for sustainability: results of an OECD survey on financial institution strategies and approaches
Finance is a critical catalyst for the netzero transition of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), which account for about 40% of the aggregate GHG emissions of the business sector (OECD, 2023[1]). It enables SMEs to invest in adopting greener busine...
Micro-, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (MSMEs) and their role in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals
A report by UN DESA aims to demonstrate the relevance, role and contributions of Micro-, Small- and Medium- Enterprises (MSMEs) to the seventeen Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The report examines the role of MSMEs to each of the SDGs. The report un...
Adaptation finance: Mobilizing the private sector – a Case Study from the UNEP Adaptation Gap Report 2023
The need for adaptation action is increasing as temperatures rise, and public finance alone will not be able to provide enough investment to achieve the impact required. Unlocking private finance in support of climate action is one of the main challenges ...
IFC’s GB-TAP – Sustainable MSME Finance Reference Guide
To help financial institutions to translate sustainable finance principles to the operations they have with MSMEs, IFC Green Bond Technical Assistance Program (GB-TAP) has developed the Sustainable MSME Finance Reference Guide. This first-of-its-kind Guid...
UNIDO sheds light on the importance of digitalization of SMEs to achieve Sustainable Development Goals
In today’s rapidly evolving global landscape, the digital transformation driven by emerging technologies have brought forth unprecedented opportunities and challenges for economies around the world. UNIDO releases its latest collaborative publication, &...
Twin transition for global value chains: Green and digital
The green and digital transitions have developed in parallel to date, especially in latecomer countries, but green and digital technologies are increasingly becoming intertwined. In a recent policy brief by UNCTAD, greening and digitalizing options for la...
