Events

[2020-10-27] Lessons from the financial crisis

By 2020년 10월 27일 No Comments
Source: UNA-UK

On October 23rd 2020, Chairman Ban Ki-moon’s article was published on UNA-UK’s website. His article was on how we can all build back batter during this financial crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has upended our interconnected world, magnified existing inequalities and widened socio-economic divisions. This has the potential to stall, or even reverse, global progress on the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) with just 10 years left until their 2030 target date.”

 

Chairman Ban continued, with his worries on the current situation “however, we are lacking cooperation and decisive global leadership. Countries are carrying out their own piecemeal approaches with varying degrees of success. Great power conflict is growing. Division and mistrust are sadly flourishing at a time when a coordinated international response is greatly needed.”

 

He elaborated, “In this regard, it is critical to recommit to multilateralism and international cooperation to simultaneously guide our recoveries from COVID-19 and fortify the resilience of our economies, societies and planet for the next major crisis that is certain to arise. This could be a future pandemic, cascading climate tipping points, or a major regional or global armed conflict.”

 

In addition, Chairman Ban wrote on solutions to combat this crisis. “To build back better, first we need to ensure that we protect the most vulnerable. Second, we must increase investment in public health resilience and global health security. This will also go a long way in combating growing inequality and enhancing social inclusion. Third, we should ensure that our COVID-19 recovery simultaneously tackles climate change and provides pathways to a more sustainable and resilient planet.” He listed.

Chairman Ban concluded his article with a message for all. “The bottom line is that our recovery from this pandemic must guide us to a more inclusive, sustainable and resilient future. It must be more inclusive to ensure that no one is left behind, including marginalized communities and the most vulnerable. It must be more sustainable so we can build our economies and societies back greener and simultaneously combat worrying air quality levels, biodiversity loss, CO2 emissions, extreme temperatures and ecosystem damage. And it must be more resilient to give humanity and our planet the right tools to confront the next major pandemic, environmental calamity or security crisis.” He concluded.

 

If you would like to read the full article, please visit UNA-UK’s website