UNCTAD XV: Achieving prosperity for all after Covid
- 21 Jan - 21 Jan
- Geneva, Switzerland
- Read this in:
- en
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.
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.
References:
Overview of UNCTAD Trade and Development Report 2020 - English, French and Spanish versions available
2020 UNCTAD Trade and Development Report - English only
Chair’s draft negotiating text: Submitted by the Chair of the Preparatory Committee for the fifteenth session of UNCTAD - English, French and Spanish versions available
UNCTAD Secretary General’s Report to UNCTAD XV - Transforming trade and development in a fractured, post-pandemic world - English only