UN/DESA Policy Brief #78: Achieving the SDGs through the COVID-19 response and recovery
The impact of COVID-19 on SDG achievement will only be known with certainty in the months to come, but assessments for 2020 are bleak. If responses are ad hoc, underfunded and without a view to long-term goals, decades of progress stand to be reversed. However, as countries begin to move towards recovery, coherent and comprehensive actions can place the world on a robust trajectory towards achieving sustainable development.
UN/DESA Policy Brief #76: COVID-19 poses grievous economic challenge to landlocked developing countries
The Covid-19 pandemic is increasing the risks of a balance of payments crisis, a food crisis and a debt crisis in landlocked developing countries
UN/DESA Policy Brief #72: COVID-19 and sovereign debt
Without aggressive policy action, the COVID-19 pandemic could turn into a protracted debt crisis for many developing countries. High debt servicing hamstrings developing countries’ immediate response to COVID-19 and rule out needed investment in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). A debt crisis would dramatically set back sustainable development.
UN/DESA Policy Brief #66: COVID-19 and the least developed countries
Covid-19 threatens to have devastating consequences in least developed countries (LDCs). Unless bold policy actions are taken by the international community, achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by the 2030 deadline will likely slip out of reach.
UN/DESA Policy Brief #65: Responses to the COVID-19 catastrophe could turn the tide on inequality
This brief identifies inequalities around the COVID-19
pandemic in exposure, vulnerabilities and coping capacity.
It suggests that crisis responses in four areas could turn
the tide on inequality. These include expanding systems
for the universal provision of quality social services;
identifying and empowering vulnerable groups; investing
in jobs and livelihoods; and acting through the multilateral
system to respond to disparities across countries.
UN/DESA Policy Brief #64: The COVID-19 pandemic puts Small Island Developing economies in dire straits
Scaled-up international development cooperation will
remain
critical for ensuring that small island economies
can strengthen their health response to the pandemic, while
safeguarding food security and averting an economic crisis.
UN/DESA Policy Brief #63: The COVID-19 pandemic: A speedy and balanced recovery of Europe will remain critical for the world to return to the trajectory of sustainable development
A speedy, timely and balanced recovery from the crisis will be critical not only for preserving European solidarity, but also for ensuring that the world quickly returns to the trajectory of sustainable development.
UN/DESA Policy Brief #60: Commodity exporters face mounting economic challenges as pandemic spreads
Unlike most developed economies, commodity exporters—saddled with large budget deficits and high levels of government debt—will find it extremely difficult to roll out large fiscal stimulus.
UN/DESA Policy Brief #59: Corona crisis causes turmoil in financial markets
Financial sector measures should complement other national and international actions to address the health, social and economic impact of the crisis.