The COVID-19 pandemic is transforming how we think about our economies and our societies. The policy choices governments make today will determine their success in building a transition to a greener, more inclusive and more resilient tomorrow. It is an opportunity to chart a path that empowers everyone to face the future with confidence.
The speed and scale of the macroeconomic policy response to the COVID-19 crisis is unprecedented in peacetime.
The extensive use of direct fiscal policy tools to offset the most damaging effects of the pandemic necessarily had a marked impact on OECD-area governments’ total gross borrowing (new borrowing plus refinancing needs). Having remained stable since the 2008 financial crisis, it jumped more than 70% from USD 9.6tn in 2019 to above USD 16.4tn in 2020 – the highest increase in a single year, and nearly double the rise during the 2008 financial crisis.
While debt levels are projected to fall as economies recover, governments have sought to rebalance their sovereign debt portfolio maturities to strengthen resilience against refinancing risk.
Aid to developing countries reached record levels in 2021 as they grappled with the COVID-19 crisis, including USD 6.3bn on vaccines. Higher commodity prices in 2022 means more help will be needed.
Fake, substandard goods – including medicines, test kits, PPE and even vaccines – undermine trust and require a robust policy response to promote clean trade in the COVID-19 recovery.
A new OECD policy paper compiles the views of youth organisations from 72 countries on their experiences through the COVID-19 crisis and related government action.
The International Energy Agency proposes 10-point plan with immediate impact to reduce dependency – and actions to put long-term energy needs on a more resilient and sustainable footing.
Sixty-seven evaluations of government responses to the COVID-19 crisis provide lessons for managing risk, decision-making and communications.
More than 6 out of 10 OECD citizens believe governments should do more to reduce income differences between rich and poor – but opinion on its extent and how it should be tackled is divided.
Young people are our leaders of tomorrow, but they have been among the hardest hit. How can they become the driving force for change post-COVID-19?
Aligning policies and investing in skills and innovation are key to tackling the policy challenges on climate change. Explore our Green Recovery page to learn more.
A fresh supply shock stemming from the war in Ukraine imperils the recovery from COVID-19 – and re-focuses governments’ efforts to build more resilient and more sustainable economies.
USD 6.3bn of COVID-19 vaccine aid was given to developing countries in 2021 – equivalent to nearly 857 million doses. This was 3.5% of total official development assistance (ODA) from members of the OECD’s Development Assistance Committee (DAC), lifting it to an all-time high of USD 179bn, up 4.4% in real terms vs. 2020. Excluding COVID-19 vaccines, it was up 0.6%.
Challenges lie ahead. Spiking commodity prices following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine means the spectre of food insecurity looms large.
Combined with significantly higher energy prices and mounting fiscal pressures that are constraining growth, additional ODA for the hardest hit will be needed. Governments’ efforts to build a resilient economic recovery from COVID-19 just got harder.
In 2015, UN member countries committed to 17 SDGs. However, the COVID-19 pandemic – and now the geopolitical and economic consequences of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine – have set back efforts to realise those goals.
Yet both events underline the vital importance of building the foundations for a more resilient, more sustainable global economy.
A new OECD report puts under scrutiny the many obstacles policy makers must still overcome – in particular in ensuring no one is left behind, restoring trust in institutions and limiting pressures on the natural environment.
The OECD area as a whole has met 10 of the 112 targets for which performance can be gauged and is close to achieving 18 more – while 21 targets are far from being met.
Face masks, testing kits and COVID-19 vaccines are three products many people have become rapidly familiar with since the outbreak of the pandemic.
New OECD analysis highlights the essential role played by global supply chains in ensuring steady access to a wide range of materials and ingredients as manufacturers rapidly scaled up production to meet surging demand.
The OECD is launching two new tools aimed at efforts to help countries build better and build stronger as they bounce back from the COVID-19 pandemic.
> The COVID-19 Recovery Dashboard provides a comprehensive set of outcome indicators that measure countries’ recovery efforts along four parameters – strong, inclusive, green and resilient
> The Regional Recovery Platform addresses the challenge of tackling the unevenness of recoveries within countries, drawing on internationally-comparable subnational data across multiple indicators
Barbara Ubaldi
Acting Head, Division on Open and Innovative Governments, OECD
Susan Hopgood
President, Education International
Victoria Reeser
Environmental Economist
Mary L. Gray & Siddharth Suri
Authors, Ghost Work: How to Stop Silicon Valley from Building a New Global Underclass
The OECD Forum Network is a space that brings together different voices, different opinions and different ideas on how we can build a resilient recovery and emerge stronger from the COVID-19 pandemic.
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