Publications | Economic Analysis and Policy Division

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20 April 2021

UN/DESA Policy Brief #102: Population, food security, nutrition and sustainable development

Introduction: can the world feed a population of nearly 10 billion in 2050? The question of population growth has long been connected with the topic of food security. Since the 1960s, global growth in agricultural production has outpaced population increase. However, this success has come at high costs: first, food systems are already exceeding some planetary boundaries for key resources and are generating tremendous food loss and waste. Second, current diets are resulting in premature mortality and susceptibility to both chronic and infectious diseases. Third, food systems continue to be linked with vast inequalities, including the persistence of hunger and food insecurity and the struggle… UN/DESA Policy Brief #102: Population, food security, nutrition and sustainable development

20 April 2021

UN/DESA Policy Brief #101: Challenges and Opportunities for Indigenous Peoples? Sustainability

Threats to indigenous peoples? livelihoods and traditional knowledge Climate change is the greatest challenge facing humanity today. Its effects, however, are disproportionately distributed, in particular affecting vulnerable and socially marginalized population groups. Indigenous peoples are among the first to face the direct impacts of global warming on the ecosystems or landscapes they inhabit, owing also to their dependence upon, and close relationship with the environment and its resources. Examples of the negative impacts include diseases associated with increasing temperatures such as, vector-borne and water-borne diseases; drought and desertification leading to forest fires and the… UN/DESA Policy Brief #101: Challenges and Opportunities for Indigenous Peoples? Sustainability

19 April 2021

Comprehensive Study on the Impact of COVID-19 on the Least Developed Country Category

Upon request of the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations, the Committee for Development Policy undertook a comprehensive on the impact of COVID-19 on the LDC category. It has two main intended uses. First, it is an input to the 2021 triennial review, meant to enable the Committee to incorporate fully into its triennial reviews the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on LDCs and countries graduating from the LDC category. Second, it is an input to a possible contribution by the Committee to the forthcoming fifth United Nations Conference on the Least Developed Countries, to be held in Doha from 23 to 27 January 2022. As a result, the study contains suggestions for support for LDCs and… Comprehensive Study on the Impact of COVID-19 on the Least Developed Country Category

12 April 2021

UN/DESA Policy Brief #100: Effective blended finance in the era of COVID-19 recovery

The 2015 Addis Ababa Action Agenda recognizes the role that blended finance can play, while also acknowledging that it may not be suitable for all Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) investments. Indeed, blended finance, which uses official resources to mobilize commercial financing, has been looked to as a means to incentivize greater investment in the SDGs ? for many it was the means to go from ?billions to trillions? in financing sustainable development. Yet, while blended finance has grown rapidly since 2015, the total amount of private finance it has mobilized is still relatively small ? well below a trillion (see Figure 1). Most blended finance currently goes to middle- income… UN/DESA Policy Brief #100: Effective blended finance in the era of COVID-19 recovery

12 April 2021

UN/DESA Policy Brief #99: Why does corporate sustainability reporting matter to rebuilding better?

The current business model does not properly account for the effects of private activity on environmental and social impacts (or externalities). Companies care about environmental and social issues when these issues affect profitability, though long-term environmental and social risks are often overlooked due to the short-term nature of capital markets. And companies have for too long easily ignored those social and environmental impacts that do not affect their bottom line. As a result, the current model consumes more natural resources and creates more waste than the planet can regenerate and absorb. It also creates large social inequalities. A new model of capitalism needs to reconcile… UN/DESA Policy Brief #99: Why does corporate sustainability reporting matter to rebuilding better?

12 April 2021

UN/DESA Policy Brief #98: Risk-informed finance

Introduction The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the widespread and cascading effects of systemic risks on economies and societies in an increasingly complex and interrelated risk landscape. With more than 2 million lives lost at the time of writing, the spread of COVID-19 and its economic fallout are an urgent call for the global community to better prepare for and reduce the risk of catastrophic events. Disasters are often the result of decades of accumulation of risk. Risk that has not been sufficiently addressed, such as high debt and excess leverage, poverty and inequality, infrastructure that is not resilient, and climate change, will continue to derail financing and progress of the… UN/DESA Policy Brief #98: Risk-informed finance

12 April 2021

UN/DESA Policy Brief #97: COVID-19 and Beyond: Scaling up Private Investment for Sustainable Development

Investment needs in the face of the covid-19 pandemic The magnitude of finance and investment required to implement the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development is significant - trillions of dollars per year, mainly in infrastructure (power, telecommunications, transport, and water and sanitation). Finance and investment needs have grown further, as COVID-19 not only reversed years of progress on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), but also revealed critical infrastructure gaps, for example in healthcare and digital connectivity. The bulk of the required investment will need to be long-term. The financing needs of infrastructure are on average over 20 years. In addition, without a long… UN/DESA Policy Brief #97: COVID-19 and Beyond: Scaling up Private Investment for Sustainable Development

01 April 2021

World Economic Situation And Prospects: April 2021 Briefing, No. 148

Adding fuel to the fire? Inequality and the spread of COVID-19 The World Health Organization officially declared COVID-19 a ?pandemic? one year ago. Since then, the virus has spread like wildfire, upending social and economic life and causing an enormous?and still rising?human toll. As of 19 March 2021, the COVID-19 pandemic had infected more than 122 million people and killed about 2.7 million worldwide. Furthermore, while the vaccination campaigns gain pace globally?more than 400 million single doses have already been administered?the prospects to bring the pandemic to an end and achieve herd immunity are still uncertain. Virus mutations, pandemic fatigue and the uneven global… World Economic Situation And Prospects: April 2021 Briefing, No. 148

26 March 2021

UN/DESA Policy Brief #96: COVID-19: How the data and statistical community stepped up to the new challenges

The pandemic caused a serious disruption to statistical operations across the world In the current global health crisis, timely and reliable disaggregated data and statistics are critically needed to understand, manage and mitigate the human, social and economic losses affecting billions of people. But the disruptions to regular data production operations created by the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) lockdowns, combined with an unprecedented uptick in the demand for information to monitor the spread of the virus and mitigate its impacts, have created unprecedented challenges for the data and statistical community at the global, regional and global levels. Moreover, the pandemic struck at… UN/DESA Policy Brief #96: COVID-19: How the data and statistical community stepped up to the new challenges

19 March 2021

2021 CDP Report, ECOSOC and GA Resolutions

Report of the Committee for Development Policy (E/2021/33, Supplement No. 13)
عربي, 中文, English, Français, Русский, Español CDP excerpts on the report by theme
?Sustainable and resilient recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic that promotes the economic, social and environmental dimensions of sustainable development: building an inclusive and effective path for the achievement of the 2030 Agenda in the context of the decade of action and delivery for sustainable development
?The impact of COVID-19 on the LDC category
?The 2021 triennial review of the list of LDCs
?Monitoring of countries that are graduating and have graduated from the list of least developed countries…