The 2020 Financing for Sustainable Development Report of the Inter-agency Task Force on Financing for Development outlines measures to address the impact of the unfolding global recession and financial turmoil, especially in the world’s poorest countries.
The Report's recommendations are based on joint research by the entire UN system, including more than 60 agencies and other international institutions, led by UN-DESA, with the IMF, World Bank, WTO, UNCTAD, and UNDP taking leading roles.
The report finds that even before the outbreak of COVID-19, one in five countries – home to billions of people living in poverty – were likely to see per capita incomes stagnate or decline in 2020. Now, billions more are likely to be affected as governments struggle to cope with the pandemic. It highlights both immediate and longer-term actions to arresting the backslide and respond to the COVID-19 crisis.
The first chapter provides an analysis of the challenging global macroeconomic context, followed by the report’s thematic chapter which looks at financing sustainable development in an era of transformative digital technologies. The remainder of the report discusses progress in the seven action areas of the Addis Ababa Action Agenda and presents policy options at the national and international level.
The seven action areas are: domestic public resources; domestic and international private business and finance; international development cooperation; international trade as an engine for development; debt and debt sustainability; addressing systemic issues; science, technology, innovation and capacity-building and data, monitoring and follow-up.
The IATF was set up by the Secretary-General in 2015 as mandated in the Addis Ababa Action Agenda. The Financing for Sustainable Development Office of the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs serves as the substantive editor and coordinator of the Task Force, in close cooperation the World Bank Group, the IMF, WTO, UNCTAD, and UNDP. The Task Force is chaired by Mr. Zhenmin LIU, Under-Secretary General for Economic and Social Affairs.
The full text of the report is available here.