How can we better understand whether, and where, countries are making progress on sustainable finance?
Countries have adopted a growing range of commitments, strategies, policies and financial instruments to support sustainable transitions. Yet understanding progress across this increasingly complex landscape remains difficult. Existing tracking efforts provide important pieces of the picture, but evidence is often fragmented across policy areas, relies partly on self-assessment, and provides limited visibility on policy implementation and financial outcomes.
The Sustainable Finance Progress (SFP) framework responds to this challenge by providing an integrated, bottom-up and context-sensitive approach to tracking country-level progress on sustainable finance. Rather than replacing existing initiatives, it builds on and connects them within a common analytical structure.
The framework brings together three dimensions of progress — commitments, policy implementation and financial outcomes — across the main policy and institutional levers shaping sustainable finance: financial strategy and alignment, fiscal policy and public finance, monetary policy and central-bank operations, and financial policy and regulation.
From commitments to implementation and financial outcomes
A central feature of the SFP framework is its focus on what happens beyond the existence of policies. The framework uses granular indicators and cascading questions to examine whether relevant policies, regulations and tools are in place; their ambition and quality; their implementation; and, where data are available, associated financial outcomes.
The framework does not assume a simple causal relationship between individual policies and financial outcomes. Financial flows are shaped by multiple interacting policies, institutions and economic conditions. The SFP therefore interprets the relationship between policy implementation and financial outcomes through a contribution rather than causal-attribution lens. Among others, real-economy impact forms the next step in the framework’s theory of change, but is not assessed through indicators at this stage.
Tested across five G20 economies
The SFP Framework has been developed iteratively through a review of existing sustainable-finance tracking initiatives, consultations with experts and public institutions, thematic workshops and practical country testing. The first phase applied the framework in Brazil, France, Germany, Indonesia and South Africa, with implementation led by dedicated country partners.
These pilots cover diverse institutional structures, levels of economic development and sustainable-finance landscapes, allowing the consortium to test both the analytical value of the framework and its applicability across different country contexts. The pilots are not intended as definitive country rankings. They provide preliminary insights into country progress while also testing the methodology itself: the relevance of indicators, availability and comparability of evidence, treatment of national circumstances, and robustness of the assessment approach.
What have the pilots taught us?
The five pilots confirm the value of looking at sustainable finance through an integrated country-level lens. They also highlight several methodological challenges that will shape the next phase of the framework.
First, national sustainable-finance landscapes differ significantly. Institutional mandates, public-finance systems, regulatory approaches, financial-market structures and transition pathways vary across countries. A common framework therefore needs to enable comparability without obscuring national context.
Second, assessing progress requires methodological judgement. Clear definitions, transparent grading guidance, consistent treatment of unavailable and non-applicable evidence, and robust quality-assurance processes are essential for credible cross-country application.
Third, connecting policy implementation with financial outcomes remains a major challenge. Data on financial flows and stocks are often fragmented or unavailable, and attribution to individual policies is difficult. Strengthening the evidence base on financial outcomes is therefore a central priority for further development of the SFP framework.
A framework in the making
The working paper presents the SFP as a framework in the making. The five pilots are a first step in an iterative process of testing and refinement. The next phase will focus on strengthening the methodology, improving the availability and comparability of financial-outcome data, extending country application, and continuing to build on existing tracking initiatives and expertise.
Over time, the SFP aims to contribute to a more transparent and shared understanding of where sustainable financial systems are progressing, where gaps remain, and what policy action can support greater alignment with sustainable transition pathways. By providing a common evidence base, the framework can also support policy dialogue, peer learning and action across G20 economies.
