Overview

How can businesses and investors help fill the multi-trillion dollar gap needed for sustainable development? Simply put, by getting better at measuring and managing impacts on people and planet. Through this course, anyone can learn to improve their organization’s practice of impact management, and how to align their ESG or impact activities and reporting with emerging global standards.

Impact Measurement and Management for the SDGs is sponsored by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the global development network of the United Nations which created the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that over 190 countries have signed on to achieve by 2030. But the public sector can’t do this alone. Climate change, poverty, racial and gender equity, food, health, education, clean water — the list of challenges faced by people and planet is too long. Business and investment have stepped in to help. But in a field of evolving acronyms, standards and systems, many are not exactly sure what is required to do this work well. Third party standards and certifications are also evolving quickly to verify and assure impact management practices. What do you need to know to align your work with impact on the SDGs in ways that meet evolving expectations?

Produced by the award winning team at CASE at Duke University, and developed in collaboration with advisors from around the world, this course consolidates several decades of work around impact management into a cutting-edge guide based on short videos and lessons with concrete practical examples. The course emphasizes ways to improving decision-making for impact on SDGs through changes enterprises and investors can make in strategy, management approach, transparency, and governance, which we have translated into 4 universal practices of impact measurement and management – SET STRATEGY, INTEGRATE, OPTIMIZE and REINFORCE. These steps are aligned with the UNDP’s SDG Impact Standards as well as others, such as the Operating Principles for Impact Management. People who know how to apply these standards are increasingly in demand by institutions globally as they work to improve their performance and reporting around ESG and impact management.

If you work or wish to work within an enterprise, a corporation, a fund that manages assets or an asset owner or advisory that oversees investment assets, or if you just want to learn more about impact investing, ESG, social finance or corporate reporting, this course will help you master the core concepts and practices in impact management for the SDGs and other impacts from both an enterprise and investor perspective.