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Policy Briefs
UN DESA experts are working to help decision makers around the world navigate tough choices and to find ways to recover better from the COVID-19 crisis and prepare for complex and compounded risks in today's interconnected world.
Watch this space for the latest research, analysis and policy advice from UN DESA, an effort to support and complement the United Nations Secretary-General’s initiatives in response to the COVID-19 crisis, Decade of Action to deliver the Sustainable Development Goals and call by the Member States to advance Our Common Agenda.
UN/DESA Policy Brief #68: COVID-19 and Older Persons: A Defining Moment for an Informed, Inclusive and Targeted Response
Multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination experienced by older persons are exacerbated during the COVID-19 pandemic and aggravate their vulnerabilities.
UN/DESA Policy Brief #67: Protecting and mobilizing youth in COVID-19 responses
Young people will form a key element in an inclusive recovery
and the achievement of the Sustainable Development
Goals (SDGs) during this Decade of Action. However,
the response and recovery must be done in a way that
protects the human rights of all youth.
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 #62: The COVID-19 pandemic: a wake-up call for better cooperation at the science–policy–society interface
This brief suggests five early lessons from the response to the pandemic that can strengthen how science and technology are harnessed, including strengthening national capacities for science-based decision making.
UN/DESA Policy Brief #61: COVID-19: Embracing digital government during the pandemic and beyond
The efforts in developing digital government strategies after the COVID-19 crisis should focus on improving data protection and digital inclusion policies as well as on strengthening the policy and technical capabilities of public institutions.
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 #58: COVID-19: Addressing the social crisis through fiscal stimulus plans
Countries are quickly acting to counter its negative impact on employment and poverty, including through fiscal stimulus plans. Whether these plans will protect the most disadvantaged people and households over the long-term depends on their size, duration and on how measures are implemented.
UN/DESA Policy Brief #57: Navigating Financial Risks Through Macroprudential Policies: Recent Experiences of Emerging Economies
A decade has passed since the initial onset of the global financial crisis. Following a protracted period of sub-par growth, the global economy has strengthened as the effects of cyclical headwinds and crisis-related legacies dissipate.
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.