Private View Blog: Philanthropic capital the only way to achieve the SDGs
Few global funding crises are more stark than the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) funding gap. Filling the gap, an annual $2.5tn problem, will be formidable.
As we face the final nine years to reach the SDGs, we need philanthropists to realise their unique position in addressing these issues. Private philanthropic capital has the power to truly change lives. Unlike institutional bodies, like governments or corporations, private philanthropists can afford to take greater risks in solving complex social problems.
In essence, philanthropists are able to take moonshots. Moonshot philanthropy is leveraging wealth as a unique superpower of the high net worth community to fund high-risk, out-of-the-box ideas, absorb losses in the search of scalable solutions to many of the great challenges we face today. To have any hope of achieving the SDGs, private donors need to take more risk to uncover the social unicorns.
Like any early-stage business venture, this approach involves putting in loss-absorbing capital and building domain expertise on an issue to bring about long-term change. It is about investing time, nurturing expertise and aligning your investment with your values and insights while understanding that these early-stage ventures are fraught with setbacks and often failure.
Clear vision
My moonshot has unfolded over the past two decades. I was struck by the lack of attention to vision care globally, not only the world’s largest unmet disability but also the catalytic potential of vision correction, from gender equality, to education and productivity it became apparent that vision was the golden thread which ran throughout the SDGs. We know for example 55% of people with vision loss are women and girls and glasses provide a 20% increase in productivity throughout tea pickers in trials we ran in India. We also know that is it a solvable issue. Glasses were invented 700 years ago yet still we cannot provide access to vision correction globally.
It is also an essential issue to solve. With increased screen time and less time outdoors it is a growing issue. By 2050 it is predicted over half the global population will suffer from short sightedness. The figures among children are expected to rise from 300 million suffering currently to 500 million in the next 30 years.
The potential impact is evident, but leveraging philanthropy successfully to find a solution to this type of problem requires persistence, adaptability, and finding the right partners. For the past 20 years I have provided the catalytic investment to try and highlight the impact but also potential vision correction can have globally.
There have been failures along the way, which I have been able to absorb, but also huge successes. Vision for a Nation, a programme I set up in Rwanda, led Rwanda to become the first developing country in the world to provide access to affordable eye care for all. In 2018, the Commonwealth Heads of Government recognised poor vision on their communique. But we needed global attention.
July 23, 2021, marks a historic moment for the 1.1 billion people around the world living without access to the eyecare they need. The UN General Assembly has unanimously passed a resolution for vision for everyone by 2030, with countries set to ensure full access to eye care services for their populations, and to make eye health part of their nation’s journey to achieving the SDGs.
What started as my moonshot journey and a small campaign is now a global movement. It demonstrates how powerful philanthropic strategies can be over time, the end result is transformational. While our goal is now in sight, we still have a long way to go in getting there.
Since real social change requires resilience, we must remain consistent with our commitments and continue to push the boundaries of philanthropy.
James Chen, Chairman of the Chen Yet Sen Family Foundation
