Two months have now gone by since the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic. In this short time, several things have become clear:
1) This pandemic has exposed the structural inequalities and inefficiencies that make our societies more vulnerable;
2) Economic recovery will require swift and massive investments;
3) If we want to come out of this stronger, such investments need to be green, fair, and sustainable.
We’re seeing recommendations from top economists that we use our recovery plans to simultaneously address the social and economic fallout of the pandemic by targeting the on-going challenges of climate change, social exclusion, food insecurity, and biodiversity loss. As experts are now suggesting, translating these into meaningful action relies on aligning them with national contexts and priorities.
Anne Hammill, Senior Director of the International Institute for Sustainable Development’s Resilience Programme, argues that, at least from a climate perspective, tools such as National Adaptation Plans (NAP) and other planning processes can be of use. Through them, governments have already invested considerable amounts of time and effort to crystallise their medium- and long-term priorities for becoming more climate resilient.
“Though focused on climate change, these NAPs offer important assessments of the risks a country faces and can be valuable in devising more comprehensive pandemic response strategies. Since climate change interacts with so many aspects of our societies, economies, and ecosystems, preparing for its impacts often involves addressing multiple development objectives, including health. “What’s more, NAPs are country-owned, informed by the best-available science, and address the needs of the most vulnerable communities and places—all valuable for informing crisis relief and recovery efforts.”
According to the United Nations, over 120 developing countries have launched these processes and established structures for bringing together actors from multiple public and private sectors to design and implement adaptation and mitigation solutions. It is possible to scale up this modus operandi to apply to the broader government responses to the pandemic.
The current pandemic has brought to light many imperfections in how we respond to severe shocks and stresses on a local as well as global level. As we recover from its effects, let’s not imperil our future by recreating the conditions that led to this crisis; we cannot continue to overlook the inefficiencies and inequality that are at the root of our global society’s vulnerability. Investing in actions that countries have prioritised in their national adaptation plans can be essential to building national systems that prepare a country for dealing with the next crisis, whether it be a health crisis or an environmental one.
