About SDFA | Sustainable Digital Finance Alliance

Objective and Approach

The overall objective of the Alliance is to leverage digital technologies & innovations to enhance financing for sustainable development. In order to achieve this objective, the Alliance focuses on driving change in the following three outcome areas:

Content: Improving the knowledge-base through research and analysis of leading sustainable digital finance practice and potential.
Community: Creating a network of fintechs, financial players, policy makers and other stakeholders that collaborate and promote sustainable digital finance practices at national and international levels.
Country: Supporting action at the country level to pilot innovative approaches and take successes to scale.

About Us

UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and ANT Financial Services Group wish to champion the Alliance through catalytic, capable and complementary leadership.

Ant Financial is a technology company that brings inclusive financial services to the world. Ant Financial, officially founded in October 2014, originated from Alipay founded in 2004. Ant Financial is dedicated to bringing the world more equal opportunities through building a technology-driven open ecosystem and working with other financial institutions to support the future financial needs of society

UN Environment Programme (UNEP) is the leading global environmental authority that sets the global environmental agenda, and promotes the environmental dimension of sustainable development within the United Nations system. It has been engaged in sustainable finance since 1992 through its UNEP Finance Initiative and more recently through the ground-breaking work of its Inquiry into the Design of a Sustainable Financial System.

In September 2016, ANT Financial and UN Environment Programmme signed a Memorandum of Understanding to work together to promote sustainable development.

About Us

Co-Chairs

Inger Andersen

Co-Chairman & Executive Director of UN Environment Programme (UNEP)

Eric Xiandong Jing

Executive Chairman, ANT Financial Services Group

Executive Board

Natalie Payida Jabangwe

Chief Executive Officer, EcoCash Zimbabwe

Natalie Jabangwe, with over 11 years of experience in FinTech, is currently the youngest chief executive to run a mobile money business in Africa, EcoCash. She is 2017 Oxford University Tutu Fellow. In 2017, she became a member of YPO Africa.

Bruno Oberle

Professor at École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL)

Bruno Oberle is the Chair of Green Economy and Resource Governance, Head of the EPFL International Risk Governance Center, former Director of the Swiss Federal Office for the Environment and former State Secretary for the Environment.

Meng Yan

Head of International Partnerships & Senior Advisor to Chairman, Ant Financial

In her capacity as Senior Advisor to Chairman, Meng Yan acts as the Sherpa to Eric Jing, Ant Financial Chairman on the UN Digital Financing Taskforce. Previously, she worked for the World Bank Group for 13 years in a variety of leadership capacities.