The 2021 Financing for Sustainable Development Report (FSDR) of the Inter-agency Task Force on Financing for Development warns that COVID-19 could lead to a lost decade for development. The report highlights the risk of a sharply diverging world in the near term where the gaps between rich and poor widen because some countries lack the necessary financial resources to combat the COVID-19 crisis and its socioeconomic impact.
Though significant steps have been taken to prevent debt crises across the world sparked by the COVID-19 crisis, they have not been sufficient to restore economic stability in many developing countries, according to a policy brief issued by the UN Secretary-General on Monday, 29 March. The policy brief was released to coincide with the high-level meeting of Heads of State and Government on Financing for Development in the Era of COVID-19 and Beyond.
Registrations are open for the UN Webinar on Transfer Pricing Aspects of Financial Transactions, which will take place virtually on 25 March 2021, from 8:00 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. EDT/New York time.
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Private investment in areas critical for implementation of the SDGs has to date been vastly insufficient. The situation has worsened due to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, which resulted in a drop of almost 50 per cent in foreign direct investment in the first half of 2020.
Years of close partnership in providing technical assistance on asset management have yielded the new joint publication Managing Infrastructure Assets for Sustainable Development: A Handbook for Local and National Governments by the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs and the UN Capital Development Fund (UNCDF).
On January 19, 2021, The Platform for Collaboration on Tax (PCT), a joint initiative of IMF, OECD, UN and the World Bank, released the final version of the Practical Toolkit to Support the Successful Implementation by Developing Countries of Effective Transfer Pricing Documentation Requirements.
The Financing for Sustainable Development Office and the UN Office for South-South Cooperation recently co-hosted a Development Cooperation Forum (DCF) webinar to focus on how South-South cooperation was building capacities and strengthening the enablers of international development cooperation in a context of complex and emerging risks.
In a joint call to action, leaders of prominent businesses and financial institutions encourage companies and governments to issue innovative social bonds to address the COVID-19 pandemic. Funds raised through these bonds would be used for the immediate response to COVID-19 and to support a sustainable recovery.
The global economic recession and financial turmoil from COVID-19 are derailing implementation of the Addis Ababa Action Agenda and achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Even before the pandemic, the 2020 Financing for Sustainable Development Report (FSDR) of the Inter-agency Task Force noted that there was backsliding in many areas. Due to the COVID-19 crisis, global financial markets have witnessed heavy losses and intense volatility. Particularly worrisome is the prospect of a new debt crisis.