Governments of Romania and Mongolia in partnership with the OECD and IGES

The COVID-19 pandemic is an unprecedented multidimensional global crisis that demands coherent policy responses. The devastating human, social, financial and economic consequences of this crisis across the world risk reversing important gains made in advancing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

According to the 2020 SDG Progress Report, “the effects of the pandemic and the measures taken to mitigate its impact have overwhelmed the health systems globally, caused businesses and factories to shut down and severely impacted the livelihoods of half of the global workforce, kept 1.6 billion students out of schools, disrupted global value chains and the supply of products, and is expected to push tens of millions of people back into extreme poverty and hunger.” All these effects are jeopardising SDG progress in all regions and have implications for achieving the SDGs by 2030. Addressing the multiple socio-economic effects that COVID-19 is causing in all regions, requires breaking out of policy silos, working across sectors, coordinating action at all government levels, and engaging effectively all key stakeholders. Policy Coherence for Sustainable Development (PCSD), in this context, will be essential to address the multiple consequences of the pandemic in an integrated manner, but also to accelerate progress on the SDGs and ensure a sustainable recovery from the COVID-19 crisis that does not come at the expense of gains in achieving the SDGs domestically and internationally.

This virtual side event will convene a panel of representatives from governments, international organisations, the private sector and civil society from different world regions to

Identify concrete policy coherence actions at the domestic and international levels required to ensure a sustainable recovery from the COVID-19 crisis, while contributing to accelerate progress towards the SDGs.

Share and learn from challenges and successes in country support provided by international organisations (OECD and others) for maximising synergies and minimising trade-offs across policy domains in addressing the pandemic and implementing the SDGs.

The panel will facilitate an interregional and multi-stakeholder dialogue on sound governance and policy coherence for accelerating action and progress on the SDGs.

Register for event