While the Covid-19 pandemic is not yet over, it offers valuable lessons that can help the world respond better to other crises, says UNCTAD’s Covid Report 2022 published recently.
Drawing on all its analyses since the beginning of the pandemic, UNCTAD says this may be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to remake society for a better future.
The report details how the pandemic has exposed the weaknesses in the structure of the international social and economic order.
At the same time, it finds remarkable resilience in various areas, but only some people have benefited from this, leaving many behind.
Covid-19 has shown that only the state has the capacity to deal with systemic shocks and that responses cannot be left to the markets.
The pandemic has underlined that building the resilience of the global system to shocks and protecting the most vulnerable is a shared responsibility and the only feasible way forward.
“Today, as the major health risks of Covid-19 seem to be receding and a major cost-of-living crisis hits the global economy, it is important to look back at the Covid-19 crisis and learn from it to be better prepared for the future,” said UNCTAD Secretary-General Rebeca Grynspan.
The report says the pandemic has not only shown how interconnected the world is but also revealed the deep inequalities that exist between countries in many dimensions.
Covid-19 has laid bare inequalities in countries’ capacity to mobilize resources to deal with and recover from the crisis, give social protection to those most severely affected, offer vaccines to the billions who need them and provide health coverage for all.
UNCTAD says the world must urgently address these inequalities to avoid a lost decade for developing countries and stay on track towards the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
The report says the initial expectations of a double-digit contraction of global trade proved to be over-pessimistic.
Global trade declined by about $2.5 trillion in 2020 (or about 9% relative to 2019), but strongly rebounded, reaching a record high of about $28.5 trillion in 2021, equivalent to an increase of about 13% relative to pre-pandemic levels. - UNCTAD