Sustainability is an issue that must actively involve all countries in the world, whether more or less developed, and promoting sustainability in the world requires the cooperation of every state. It is essential that richer states help poorer ones to keep pace with progress, both technological and social, and that they commit to the core principles of the most important international organisations.

Fostering international cooperation means promoting relations between states and Society in such a way as to achieve common political, economic and environmental goals.

The objectives that mutual funds can set themselves to support international cooperation focus on compliance and adherence to the most significant international regulations (Paris Agreement, Convention on Corruption, PRI), constant monitoring of the ESG activities of their holdings.

Another objective that mutual funds can set themselves is to select some of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and promote their achievement by following the guidelines of the action plan approved by the 193 UN member countries.

Sustainable investors use different management strategies:
The Exclusion Approach: Many funds address the issue by excluding from their Portfolio those states that are not fiscally transparent according to the OECD Blacklist.
The Regulatory Approach: Most funds adhere to and respect the most important international regulations on the environment (Paris Convention, Biodiversity Convention), labour (ILO), transparency and governance (PRI, Corruption Convention, Freedom House).
Best practices: Some funds carry out ESG performance assessments of the countries in which they intend to invest or are members of organised associations that strive for greater transparency in investments (GIIN, ILG, GRI).

We use 55 criteria to determine the significance of international cooperation in mutual fund management in our universe.

The Impact, ESG Risk and Screening strategies are fairly balanced with a slight prevalence of ESG Risk in the valuation systems. At the Screening level the most widely used strategy is the regulatory approach with a focus placed on bribery and exclusion of those who use it; at theESG Risk level the strategy that is most widely used is adherence to supranational principles or particular initiatives aimed at sustainability by Society management(PRI, ILO, CDP); while at the Impact level much emphasis is placed on the use ofEngagement to influence ESG decisions within the Assemblies.

Assessing the negative impacts associated with international cooperation is helpful in facilitating international convergence toward a UN-coordinated model where individual countries agree to a minimum level of rights, transparency, tax policy and coordination.

The European Union has taken a strong position in this regard, making it mandatory for sustainable funds to measure the following indicators:

• Violations of the principles of the UN Global Compact and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) guidelines for multinational enterprises:
  The Share of Investments in Society investees that have been involved in violations of the UNGC principles or the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises.

• Share of investments in Society investees that do not verify compliance with the UNGC or the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises.:
  The Share of Investments in Society investees without policies to monitor compliance with the UNGC principles or the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises or complaint handling mechanisms to address violations of the UNGC or OECD principles.

The meaning is clear: sustainable funds must follow the principles of the UN Global Compact and discard investments in Society involved in litigation or not caring.