Financing for sustainable development report 2021

The COVID-19 pandemic is leading to an even more sharply unequal world as the development gains for millions in poor countries are revered. The report says the global economy has experienced the worst recession in 90 years, with the most vulnerable segment of societies disproportionately affected. An estimated 114 million jobs have been lost, and about 120 million people have been plunged back into extreme poverty. Only immediate action can prevent a lost decade for development for many countries. The highly uneven response to the pandemic has widened the already yawning disparities and inequities within and between countries and peoples. A historic US$16 trillion in stimulus and recovery funds helped to stave off the worst effects, but less than 20 per cent of that sum was spent in developing countries. By January 2021, all but 9 of the 38 countries rolling out vaccines were developed countries. Around half of least developed and other low-income countries were at high risk of or in debt distress before COVID-19, and with falling tax revenues, the pandemic has sent debt levels soaring. The situation in the world’s poorest countries is deeply troubling, and could push the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals another 10 years further into the future. The report includes concrete recommendations to help countries overcome the ravages of the pandemic.