Where are we at SDGs?
The Impact Investing Platform (EYDK), which was established with the aim of making impact investment a mainstream investment model in Turkey and enabling Turkey to achieve international cooperations, models and projects in this field, held a roundtable and assessed the actions to be taken in order to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Impact Investment Advisory Board (EYDK) is founded by 30 leading institutions with the aim of making impact investing a mainstream investing model in Turkey while establishing and bringing important actors included both international and internal partnerships. The first step to achieve these goals started with roundtable events. This roundtable event was realised as a part of a larger exploratory process of EYDK.
The speakers at the roundtable held on 19 August 2021 included İbrahim Öztop, General Manager of the Development and Investment Bank of Turkey; Filiz Alsaç, Development Agencies Coordinator of the Ministry of Industry and Technology; Hansın Doğan, the Private Sector Programme Manager of UNDP Turkey; Funda Süzer, Project Manager of UNDP IICPSD; Serkan Valandova, the Secretary General of YASED (International Investors Association); Lina Alsaid, the Director of Turkven Private Equity (TURKVEN), Esra Hatipoğlu, Advisor to Rector Bahcesehir University, and Ayşe Sabuncu, Co-Founder of Impact Hub Istanbul.
The first roundtable meeting was completed to reach the following objectives: First, elaboration on Sustainable Development Goals to explore the common values to focus on, and secondly, going deeper into the impact potential of SDGs in the Turkish context and the ways and means to unleash this potential.
Şafak Müderrisgil, the President of EYDK said, “EYDK aims to unlock private capital for SDG aligned investments and impact investing, therefore we need to understand the potential and integration capacity of SDGs within our businesses. EYDK being founded by 30 leading institutions with the vision of making impact investing mainstream, is to find out the impact investing potential and SDG alignment of its member institutions through elaborative discussions and reflections in order to design its agenda.”
Roundtable speakers highlighted the importance of having a cross-sectoral, embracive focus to maximise EYDK’s impact. To that end, working on capacity building in general and specifically regarding impact measurement and management have come to the forefront. Utilising the potential of Turkey’s qualified labor force would be essential in this respect. All participants have renewed their commitment to EYDK and have high expectations related to policy, market and communications development, as well as know-how creation and global network participation roles of EYDK.
İbrahim Öztop, the General Manager of Development and Investment Bank of Turkey stated, “As EYDK, we need to act in line with our national needs and strategic priorities while we are developing the impact investing ecosystem.”
Serkan Valandova, Secretary General of YASED (International Investors Association said “As EYDK, we should create relevancy aligned to the government’s initiatives and pressing issues while we are designing the methodology and aspects of our impact investing agenda.”
“Intentionality as a major element of impact investing, should be embedded within the investment thesis and criteria of EYDK members” said Ayşe Sabuncu, Co-Founder of Impact Hub Istanbul.
In the global economy, where sustainable development is of strategic importance, the importance of impact investments, which focus on creating positive and measurable social and environmental impacts as well as financial profitability, is increasing day by day. Founded on this base, EYDK starts to work to make impact investing a mainstream investment model in Turkey. Bringing together the important players of the public and private industries, EYDK has grown with the support of its non-profit stakeholders. EYDK relies on Turkey’s entrepreneurial spirit, geopolitical, social and economic power.
EYDK Social Media Accounts
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/eydk/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/eydk_turkey
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/eydkturkey/