BigFintechs and international governance, policymaking and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals: the SDGs in the international governance of finance

AIIFL | UNDP – UNCDF Technical Paper 3.2

BigFintechs and international governance, policymaking and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals: the SDGs in the international governance of finance by Kuzi Charamba, Douglas Arner and Artem Sergeev :: AIIFL-UNDP-UNCDF Technical Paper 3.2

Executive Summary: BigFintechs (BFTs) have significant impacts, both positive and negative, on the path towards achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). At present, however, there is no systematic or holistic international governance framework that manages potential negative impacts or effectively encourages positive impacts. As such, this Technical Paper provides an overview of the ways in which a select set of SDGs are reflected in international governance and their potential lessons and implications for the governance of BFTs. The paper begins by discussing the international human rights system—a well-established ‘hard law’ framework—as it touches on almost the full range of the SDGs. From this, we turn to several other SDGs where there has been significant focus and where well-developed international approaches have emerged. In particular, we consider the international frameworks addressing, in turn: decent work and economic growth (SDG 8); gender equality (SDG 5); climate change (SDGs 12, 13, 14 and 15); and peace, justice and strong institutions (SDG 16). Download the paper to continue reading