Partnership for the Goals

The pandemic is further testing multilateral and global partnerships that were already shaky. Although official development assistance (ODA) increased and remittance flows declined less than expected in 2020, foreign direct investment (FDI) dropped by 40 per cent. The impacts of the pandemic are leading to debt distress in many countries, and also limiting countries’ fiscal and policy space for critical investments in recovery (including access to vaccines), climate action and the SDGs, threatening to prolong recovery periods. The interconnected global economy requires a global response to ensure that all countries, developing countries in particular, can address compounding and parallel health, economic and environmental crises and recover better. Strengthening multilateralism and global partnerships is more important than ever.