UN: pandemic threatens lost decade for development

The COVID-19 pandemic has reversed development gains for millions in poor countries, creating an even more sharply unequal world, according to a new UN report.

"The global economy has experienced he worst recession in 90 years, with the most vulnerable segments of societies disproportionately affected", said the Inter-agency Task Force on Financing in their Financing for Sustainable Development Report 2021, pointing out that some 114 million jobs have been lost, and about 120 million people have been plunged back into extreme poverty. 

The highly uneven response to the pandemic has "widened the already yawning disparities and inequities within and between countries and peoples," according to the 60 international agencies that authored the report. 

And while an historic $16 trillion in stimulus and recovery funds released by governments worldwide have helped to stave off the worst effects, less than 20% of it was spent in developing countries. 

By January, all but nine of the 38 States rolling out vaccines were developed countries.   

In the world’s poorest countries, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) could be pushed back another 10 years, warns the report.