الزراعة والتنمية الريفية والغابات

This paper discusses how targeted interventions, either at the local or sectoral level, may shape migration and forced displacement dynamics. To assess the channels through which public policies and development initiatives potentially affect human mobility intentions and outcomes, the paper first focuses on the many—and sometimes counterintuitive—reasons why people leave their countries of origin. The drivers of both ‘voluntary’ migration and forced displacement span all dimensions of people’s lives, including economic, social, political and environmental ones. The paper then analyses the empirical evidence on the observed impact of targeted interventions on the propensity to move, either by choice or by force. The literature on the consequences of local and sectoral interventions on the behaviour of individuals in terms of human mobility remains limited, and new approaches are needed to capture more consistently the different channels of transmission. The paper thus offers potential research avenues and methodological options for better understanding of how targeted interventions can contribute to mitigating the adverse drivers of irregular migration and forced displacement.

COVID-19 threw Moldovan governance into chaotic domain (in Cynefin terms), where cause and effect are unclear, events are too confusing to wait for a knowledge-based response and Government has to act and sense before responding. The Republic of Moldova used thick data (micro-narratives) to unveil the hidden facets of COVID’s impact. Using thick data helped to provide a more nuanced response to challenges, for instance by better shaping communication strategy. Thick data should not be considered as contradicting big data, but rather as complimentary and enriching sensemaking. Empowering people to reflect on their assessed anecdotal evidence helps to enrich insights.

The United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (Agenda 2030) is a guiding star for countries, establishing a common vision for human and planetary well-being. However, approximately half of the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) targets are severely or moderately off track for achievement by 2030, in part because decision-making around the SDGs is often undertaken by just a few governmental ministries. While the Agenda 2030 declares that the SDGs are “integrated and indivisible”, goals related to the environment often take a back seat to economic goals during national implementation. The UNDP led project ‘Mapping Nature for People and Planet’ demonstrates how countries can apply integrated spatial planning to facilitate inclusive decision-making for policy targets around the SDGs, the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and other global conventions and frameworks. The project supports countries in developing a singular map of Essential Life Support Areas (ELSAs) that shows pathways for action to achieve multiple targets at once, including those at the nexus of nature, climate and sustainable development. At the base of the map are the country’s most pressing policy targets and current spatial data layers, hand-selected by national experts. This policy brief captures insights from this project to help policymakers use integrated spatial planning to support the achievement of SDGs, with a focus on those that are the most dependent on nature.

Impacts of crises on inequality and marginalization are more complex and layered in today’s interconnected world than they were in the past, often manifesting through exacerbation of various pre-existing vulnerabilities of disadvantaged groups. Recovery strategies and efforts to build resilience thus require more multidimensional lenses for addressing secondary impacts of shocks, particularly on the most vulnerable. This brief explores whether multidimensional approaches to addressing issues related to poverty and vulnerability are more helpful in crisis contexts. Towards that end, the brief analyzes primary data on beneficiaries of UNDP Bangladesh’s Livelihoods Improvement of Urban Poor Communities (LIUPC) project. The findings are expected to contribute to the conception, design and scaling-up of future initiatives and contextualized solutions to strengthen the resilience of urban poor communities in similar settings.

Shocks and crises have become more frequent, intense and widespread in an interconnected world, affecting more people across the globe. Crises that might have previously remained relatively contained within a well-defined geographic region, are now propagated rapidly through globally interconnected systems and networks in areas such as economics, finance, the environment and health. The 2008 Global Financial Crisis is an example of how financial shocks spread through the interconnected balance sheets of financial institutions, causing havoc around the world. The COVID-19 pandemic also shows how national health systems were unable to absorb the effects of the virus, which spread quickly through a dense global transportation network before disrupting highly concentrated economic and financial networks and killing more than 7 million people. Looking toward the Second World Summit for Social Development in 2025, this policy brief focuses on explaining how shocks turn into crises and how national policies, supported by the international community, can help counter shocks, build resilience, and advance social development objectives, namely eradicating poverty, promoting full and productive employment, and fostering social inclusion in times of converging crises.

Extreme poverty has been rising in Mozambique for the past decade—the analysis in this Development Futures Series Working Paper suggests that this trend has been aggravated by the cost-of-living crisis induced by the onset of the war in Ukraine in early 2022. The authors of this working paper estimate that, compared to December 2021, 1 million additional Mozambicans lived in extreme poverty as of December 2022 due to the soaring food, energy and transport inflation, with 60% of these individuals being concentrated in urban areas. The analysis underscores the limited mitigation potential of tax measures, such as the reduction in Value Added Tax (VAT) implemented by the Mozambican government in December 2022. The analysis finds that alternative policies, such as cash transfers, have nearly three times greater mitigation potential. While this is a national analysis, this paper includes important policy implications for countries with significant shares of subsistence farmers, economies that have implemented or considered implementing a VAT reduction to mitigate income or consumption shocks, and countries facing compound shocks through the cost-of-living crisis, extreme weather events and armed conflict.

The recent confluence of crises – the COVID-19 pandemic, violent conflicts, and climate change – has caused severe setbacks to central objectives of social development, such as poverty eradication, employment generation, inequality reduction, and building inclusive societies. People and societies in vulnerable situations have been hit the hardest by the converging crises. There are indications that shocks and crises are becoming ever more frequent, severe, and far-reaching – driven by the worsening effects of climate change, the growing probability of pandemics, growing geopolitical tensions, and increasingly dense global networks of trade, finance and transport. The effects of these converging crises can be severe and long-lasting, as they may exhaust public and private response capacities, cause economic scarring, and trap people in a cycle of poverty. The World Social Report (WSR 2024) estimates that the potential cumulative global economic output loss could be over $50 trillion in the 2020–2030 period, an indication of lost opportunities for social development. National social protection mechanisms can help to protect and further advance social development. These mechanisms, by limiting the adverse impacts of shocks and crises, especially on people in vulnerable situations, and by supporting short-term recovery, enhance longer-term resilience and foster sustainable and inclusive growth. Yet only 47 per cent of the global population and as few as 13 per cent in low-income countries, are estimated to have access to at least one social protection benefit. At the same time, converging crises may increase the cost of providing adequate and universal social protection, while also depleting public financial resources. As a result, many developing countries, including most low- and lower-middle-income countries, would find it difficult to achieve universal social protection by 2030 without additional international support

Taxing wealth can take many forms; policy makers should carefully analyse options best suited to the existing tax system and the social-economic situation in their country. Ensuring effective taxation of wealth is a tool to address inequality, increase progressivity in the tax system, and raise domestic revenues to finance sustainable development. Net wealth taxes are gaining support, fuelled by the view that all individuals and corporations must pay their fair share of taxes. Investments in technological progress and automation of tax administrations, coupled with third-party reporting, international tax cooperation in the form of exchange of information and exit taxes, are crucial elements that could help countries to efficiently and effectively levy a net wealth tax.

This policy brief focuses on the challenges of an ageing workforce and available policy strategies to unlock its full potential. It presents policy examples from the UNECE region aimed at readying the workforce for the future, retaining older workers in the workforce and re-engaging older workers beyond normal retirement age. Finally, the policy brief also offers a checklist of effective measures to address the challenges of an ageing workforce.

With its central pledge to leave no one behind and to reach the furthest behind first, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development echoes the commitment to promoting social inclusion contained in the 1995 Copenhagen Declaration on Social Development. In SDG Target 10.2, countries explicitly committed to promoting the social, economic, and political inclusion of all, regardless of age, sex, disability, race, ethnicity, origin, religion, or economic or other status. Yet in many contexts, these ascribed characteristics remain a significant source of disadvantage. A sizeable share of total inequality in income is explained by inherited characteristics that should have no bearing on life chances, for example, 77 per cent in South Africa, 66 per cent in Brazil, 50 per cent in India and 49 per cent in Bulgaria. These inequalities are unfair and persistent, often passed from one generation to the next through interlinked disadvantages in health, education, nutrition, and access to decent work. Given persistent and high inequalities, improving the terms of participation for people who are disadvantaged on the basis of their group characteristics through enhanced access to opportunities, resources, voice and respect for rights is crucial to achieving the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. This brief illustrates how inequality in opportunity between different population groups can be quantified using existing household survey data, drawing on analysis conducted for the 2025 edition of the World Social Report.