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 the planet. Through this course, anyone can learn to improve their organisation’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 the 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 emphasises ways to improve decision-making for impact on SDGs through changes enterprises and investors can make in the strategy, management approach, transparency, and governance, which they have translated into 4 universal practices of impact measurement and management – SET STRATEGY, INTEGRATE, OPTIMISE 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.

Offered by

Duke University

Duke University has about 13,000 undergraduate and graduate students and a world-class faculty helping to expand the frontiers of knowledge. The university has a strong commitment to applying knowledge in service to society, both near its North Carolina campus and around the world.