UN Policy Dialogue Series

The United Nations (UN) Framework for the Immediate Socio-Economic Response to COVID-19 was launched at the end of April 2020. It presents an integrated support package that the United Nations development system can leverage as it tailors its response to each country to protect the needs of the most vulnerable. It offers the basis to design a quick recovery that builds back better, establish better conditions for ending poverty and accelerate on achieving the SDGs.

The effects of the pandemic have posed a serious challenge to the 2030 Agenda and the SDGs in China and the world. COVID-19 has exposed some structural imbalances exacerbating and deepening pre-existing inequalities and vulnerabilities in social, political, economic, and biodiversity systems, which are in turn amplifying the impacts of the pandemic. In short, the pre-COVID-19 development was not on a sustainable path.

At the same time, COVID-19 provided a once-in-a-generation opportunity for countries to build back better and to become more resilient to future crises. This could assist in creating the conditions for more sustainable development. The crisis and the nature of countries’ responses to it can lead to a halt or even a regression in the efforts to attain the SDGs but can also help countries further accelerate progress towards them. Furthermore, COVID-19 has brought people together in a way that no amount of advocacy or awareness raising could. We now have a shared understanding that will make it easier to take the right actions. No one wants to experience this type of crisis again.

It is in this context that the UN Policy Dialogue series is being organised on selected topics of national importance to learn from and share the Chinese experience; to explore, together with Chinese thought leaders and partners, SDG focused innovative approaches to build back better.

Useful links:

UN Policy Dialogue on Social Protection

UN Policy Dialogue on Food Systems

UN Policy Dialogue on Green Development