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According to the UNCTAD-backed Sustainable Stock Exchanges (SSE) Initiative nearly 60 stock exchanges, representing more than 70% of listed equity markets, and some 30,000 companies with a market capitalization of over $55trn, have now made a commitment to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Stock exchanges can take concrete steps on five of the 17 SDGs, adopted by UN Member States in September 2015. These goals include work on gender, decent work and economic growth, responsible production and consumption, climate change, and global partnerships. The initiative's 2016 progress report notes that financial markets could do more to support achievement of the SDGs.

Meeting the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals will require additional investments of $2.5 trillion a year in things like health care and education for the world’s poorest people, according to UNCTAD, a UN agency. The term blended finance appeared referring to a strong mixture of public, private and charitable money, a way to make the limited pool of money available for worthy causes go further. The idea of using public funds to attract private money is a venerable one. For it to change development finance fundamentally it will have to become easier to scale up.