UNCTAD XV: Achieving prosperity for all after Covid

21 Jan 2021 Geneva, Switzerland 21 Jan - 21 Jan

UNCTAD XV: Achieving prosperity for all after Covid

  • 21 Jan - 21 Jan
  • Geneva, Switzerland

In a webinar discussion held on Thursday 21st January, join the Director of UNCTAD’s Division on Globalization and Development Strategies, Richard Kozul-Wright, to discuss the recent flagship Trade and Development Report 2020: From global pandemic to prosperity for all: avoiding another lost decade.

21st January 2021

23:00 Manila / 20:30 New Delhi / 18:00 Nairobi / 16:00 Geneva / 16:00 Lagos / noon Sao Paulo / 11:00 Bridgetown / 10am Washington, DC.

The event is co-organised by the Third World Network; the Civil Society Financing for Development (FfD) Group; Our World Is Not for Sale; and the Third World Network - Africa.

Register here

Covid-19 has served as a reminder that we live in a closely interdependent world that brings opportunities but also carries dangers. It has, just as importantly, shed light on a whole series of pre-existing conditions - from heightened inequality, to unsustainable debt and rampant environmental destruction - that were left unaddressed after the Global Financial Crisis.

The most recent Trade and Development Report argues that the global economic crisis caused by Covid-19 throws up a stark choice: continue misguided policy choices or collectively chart a new path that leads from recovery to a more resilient, more equal and more environmentally sustainable world in line with the ambition of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

Neither path is preordained. Building a better world is a matter of conviction and collective action. The lives of future generations and of the planet itself will depend on the choices we all take over the coming months.

Kozul-Wright will share with civil society leaders from around the world some of the policy prescriptions recommended in the TDR, including:

  • Increased government spending including a big public investment push into cleaner energy, environmental protection, sustainable transport systems and the care economy, including through industrial policies;

  • Coordinated macroeconomic expansion focused on job creation and higher wages;

  • Labour market regulation that supports employees’ compensation;

  • Expanded use of Special Drawing Rights to boost global liquidity;

  • Financial support for boosting the health emergency response to COVID-19 in developing countries through a Marshall Plan for Health Recovery;

  • A Global Debt Authority to stop a repeat liquidity crises from turning into serial sovereign defaults;

  • And more.

This webinar is being held in the context of the XV Conference of UNCTAD which is scheduled for October 3-8, 2021 in Bridgetown, Barbados, which will set the mandate of UNCTAD for the next four years on the interrelated issues of trade, development, finance, technology, industrial policy, debt, investment, e-commerce, and more.

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