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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.
UN/DESA Policy Brief #56: The institutional history of WESS—70 years of development policy
The WESS has been the earliest and continuous post-World War II development-focused report, predating any other world development report that appeared thereafter. It was born as a response to the resolution 118 (II) of 31 October 1947.
UN/DESA Policy Brief #55: The Global context for the 2030 Agenda
Globalization and technological progress have enabled unprecedented gains in wellbeing across the world. However, imbalances in global flows, when they emerge, continue to plague the global economic and financial system, and cause development setbacks. The turbulence of the last decade demonstrated once again that global mechanisms remain ill-suited to protect the most vulnerable countries and populations groups from the effects of crises.
UN/DESA Policy Brief #54: Global development trends at the turn of the century
From the mid-1990s to the late 2000s, there are three major issues that shaped the world economy: the convergence of developing countries’ income with respect to the average income of developed economies; the growing unbalances in the global economy which led eventually to the global financial crisis; and the adoption and implementation of the Millennium Development Goals.
UN/DESA Policy Brief #53: Reflection on development policy in the 1970s and 1980s
After almost three decades of remarkable progress since the end of the Second World War, economic conditions started to deteriorate in the 1970s. Economic growth slowed down in all parts of the world during the second half of the 1970s and the first half of the 1980s. Before the oil price shock of 1973, the annual growth of world gross product had been at 5.3 per cent, while during the rest of the 1970s, annual world growth reached only 2.8 per cent.
UN/DESA Policy Brief #52: The Marshall Plan, IMF and First UN Development Decade in the Golden Age of Capitalism: lessons for our time
The Golden Age of Capitalism spanned from the end of the Second World War in 1945 to the early 1970s, when the Bretton Woods monetary system collapsed. It was a period of economic prosperity with the achievement of high and sustained levels of economic and productivity growth. During the Golden Age, the themes taken up by World Economic and Social Survey, henceforth referred to as the Survey, varied from year to year, in response to pressing development concerns.
UN/DESA Policy Brief #51: Reflecting on the World Economic and Social Survey's 70 years of development policy analysis
In drawing the most relevant lessons for implementing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the World Economic and Social Survey 2017 systematically reviews the seven decades of development discussions contained in the publication – the oldest continuous publication of its kind.
UN/DESA Policy Brief #50: International finance to support climate change resilience
In the past 20 years, weather-related disasters affected 4.2 billion people worldwide, with a large loss of life and livelihoods. The global annual average cost of climatic disasters, including floods, storms, droughts and heat waves, is estimated to have risen from $64 billion during the period 1985-1994 to $154 billion in the period 2005-2014. A more complete estimate of global costs, taking into account the loss associated with slow-onset climate events (e.g., sea-level rise and desertification), is likely to yield a larger figure.
UN/DESA Policy Brief #49: Data and statistics for climate change resilience
Identifying the population groups at greatest risk due to climate-related events, understanding the specific risks they incur, and monitoring the interventions to reduce their vulnerability requires basic indicators on populations in vulnerable zones. Furthermore, these indicators must meet international criteria for standardized sources and methods, frequency and continuity, and be easy to understand.