The COVID-19 crisis has created a dire need for the active facilitation of sustainable investment to promote an inclusive, gender-sensitive and green recovery. The partnership between the European Union (EU) and the African Union (AU), and their respective member states, can provide a strategic and institutional framework for stimulating sustainable investment in a collective manner.
A series of high-profile events has added up to making 2021 a crucial year to tackle the global sustainable development agenda and present a unique opportunity to drive a virtuous circle of political commitment, regulation, and financial flows towards sustainable recovery in developing countries, which is a key issue of this year’s G20 cycle. Bringing the voice of developing countries in the global multilateral agenda is not easy to tackle due to different and often competing political priorities. This blog draws lessons from the Italian G20 Presidency to inform the development policy considerations and efforts of the upcoming Indonesian, Indian and Brazilian G20 Presidencies. These Presidencies have a great potential to prioritize sustainable recovery in the Global South in their own, as well as in cooperation with the G7 and EU Presidencies when appropriate.
Europe and Africa should make joint efforts to invest in projects that would support digital sovereignty on both continents, including joint industrial projects – in the area of ethical AI and open-source technologies for instance. This would respond to some of the gaps in terms of local digital industries on both continents as well as to local needs, and would demonstrate that the EU-AU digital partnership is not simply about trying to export European technologies or about aid, but about reinforcing a free and open internet.
The present study is the product of the European Think Tanks Group (ETTG) collaboration aiming both to propose a definition of SDG alignment and to provide concrete principles to further operationalise and promote such alignment in practice.
This ODI briefing explores how the diverging fortunes across countries have come to pass and the limitations of the multilateral initiatives intended to support a global response. It focuses especially on the multilateral financing measures that have been put in place to combat the crisis and looks at some of the changes that would be required to support a more effective response in future.
In the United Nations General Assembly at the end of September, European Council President Charles Michel called for effective multilateralism in tackling today’s global problems. He stressed the EU’s role in building back better after COVID, contributing to a safer world and leading the race against climate change.
The race to battle Covid-19 and secure personal protective equipment, ventilators and vaccines, aggravated by both nationalist monopolistic policies and the rise of new variant strains, has highlighted the vital need for global cooperation. Current transnational policies exacerbate existing disparities across Mediterranean states in a context where the European Union is struggling to meet its own healthcare-related needs and many countries in North Africa and the Near East are burdened with economic hardships and internal strife.
A recent IAI study has argued that several shortcomings in the climate and development finance systems undermine the capacity of countries in the Global South to tackle climate change¹. Insufficient resources, lack of focus on adaptation, inadequate management of climate risks, the vicious circle between indebtedness and climate vulnerability are some of the major obstacles.
