French development chief on how Paris could be a hub for achieving SDGs

How can Paris become a hub for work on the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals? What is the role of the U.N. in 2023? And how can the SDGs be refined to fight the world’s most pressing challenges most effectively? Those are some of the ideas we put recently to Rémy Rioux, the head of the French Development Agency. Having helped to host last month’s Paris summit on a new global financial pact, Rioux is now setting his sights on the events coming up in the next few years. A recent op-ed in Devex that he co-signed with six other Paris-based organizations, including UNESCO and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, set out their hope to make the French capital “a fruitful forum for global governance, a hub of solutions for sustainable development, and a place where artificial intelligence will be deployed to facilitate the implementation of the SDGs.” Devex spoke with Rioux in his office in Paris earlier in July, when he talked about plans for Paris to become a hub for achieving SDGs, and joked about Vienna being known for spies. This interview has been edited for length and clarity. On your idea of Paris becoming an SDG hub: Who needs to do what to make it a reality? And when? So, the idea is that we know about Rome: agriculture, food security. We know about Geneva: health and human rights. We know about Vienna: spies. We know about Brussels. We know about Washington. We know about New York. We know Nairobi for environment. Paris’ role as part of a network of global cities is unclear or reduced to museums and the Fashion Week or things like that, which is a bit unfair probably for those that are living in Paris. In London, the private side ate it all, probably. The co-signatories of the recent op-ed probably share some sort of dissatisfaction with the fact that we are many in this place, Paris, and we could do better as a network if we take a bit of time for that, and if we find the narrative and the action plan behind it. The narrative is about solutions for SDGs, about a platform, about a laboratory, where you have, not exclusively, but enough, sustainable science and sustainable finance. Maybe Paris could play a role in bridging science and finance, which is key for the implementation of Agenda 2030. With, of course, all the schools and universities, and this young generation of climate researchers, happening in Paris. And with UNESCO at the top of this track of sustainability and education for the SDGs — as the multilateral platform, whose role is to define the science for the common agenda. The next step is: We made the declaration, we need to transform it into an agenda. We will try to say something more, maybe by the next Paris Peace Forum in November. And then we have the next global financing summit in 2025. That’s what summits are about: It sets a deadline, to demonstrate we did something more. How should the United Nations be involved in the current conversations on new solutions to financing development? Some NGOs feel the U.N. is increasingly being sidelined — but that, however cumbersome, it is the appropriate venue for these discussions. What is your response? The good news and the sign of success of the SDGs is that other players are taking it on board. I feared, actually, that the SDGs would disappear. So I'm quite surprised and happy that they are still alive. And maybe not enough — there are many people who should know, who don’t know. At the global financing pact summit in June, I was happy and surprised that the SDGs, the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, and the Paris Agreement were so high in the narrative. Probably because this is the only way to surpass this divide between climate and development. That was the intention from the start. We need U.N. settings to take stock, so that's what will happen in September [at the U.N. General Assembly]. And in 2025, we will have the next summit — after Addis Ababa in 2015 — on financing for development. The dissemination of the SDGs is happening everywhere. It's also happening in the U.N. system. For me, the mandate of UNESCO changed in 2015. It's about science, education, and culture for SDGs. The same with each and every U.N. agency. And it’s unfinished business probably for now. Aren't we also lacking a hard-nosed political decision about the need to focus on something more specific than 17 Sustainable Development Goals? Surely some are more important than others … Operationalizing the SDGs is the step we want to reach in the next strategy of AFD, which we are discussing right now. Our interpretation of the SDGs is first, quality. SDGs are first a standard of quality of investment. Since 2014, before I arrived, we have this sustainable development opinion procedure we pass all our projects through. It's a very simple tool. I do not see why each and every financial institution could not develop that kind of instrument and standards that would make investments consistent with the SDGs. At times when ESG [or environmental, social, and governance] is severely criticized or downplayed, that's also where Paris could have a voice, and the Finance in Common movement of public banks. I think it’s needed when these signals somehow are becoming contentious or weakening on the private side. The SDGs are about geography and clients. We need to stop pretending that for Côte d'Ivoire, the issue is water and sanitation and that we will all do water sanitation. It makes no sense. So, it's really about being more attentive to the context and understanding what is missing, what are the bottlenecks, what is the political economy, what are the environmental challenges of specific territories. And the trajectories, not to ask countries to be perfect now, but see how a country or territory can move or have a dynamic that goes — by 2030, by 2050 — where we want to go. And the SDGs are a lot about innovation. That's why at AFD we just reorganized, and we have all our technical teams at the same level. And our director for sustainable development solutions is asking them to do things together. Not all of them, but at least two or three of them — [for example,] biodiversity and health. These kinds of linkages are not happening when you are in the usual silos of international governance and financial institutions. Then, I agree with you: There are SDGs more important than others probably, where we need to verify and be accountable to whether there are sufficient resources, investments, and concessional resources. So certainly, climate and biodiversity, certainly health and education, and poverty probably.