The SDGs as an Operational Framework for Post COVID-19 Response and Recovery
| Autor | Mahmoud Mohieldin - Miral Shehata |
| Cargo | Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Economics of the University of Warwick - Bachelor of Arts (BA) in Economics of the University of Chicago |
| Páginas | 5-42 |
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ABSTRACT
Despite progress on a number of goals, the world was not moving fast enough towards achieving the
Sustainable Development Goals in the pre-COVID era. The Decade of Action started with the hit of the
COVID-19 crisis, which stressed the urgent need to tackle the root causes of vulnerabilities. This paper
explores the roles of different critical actors towards achieving the sustainable development goals (SDGs),
namely national governments; local and regional governments and local communities; and the business
sector as well as the interactions among these actors that facilitate the implementation of the SDGs.
The paper also discusses how the SDGs provide an operational framework for building back better
during the response and recovery phases from the crisis and how the COVID-19 pandemic has
changed the policy scene to reimagine the roles played by the different actors.
Lastly, the paper elaborates on three critical factors that would shape the degree of progress in the next
decade, namely dependable data, adequate finance and effective implementation of development policies.
KEYWORDS
COVID-19, Pandemic, Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), Development Policies, Crisis.
RESUMEN
A pesar del progreso en una serie de objetivos, el mundo no avanzaba lo suficientemente rápido hacia
el logro de los Objetivos de Desarrollo Sostenible en la era anterior a COVID. La Década de Acción
comenzó con el impacto de la crisis de COVID-19, que enfatizó la urgente necesidad de abordar las
causas profundas de las vulnerabilidades. Este documento explora los roles de diferentes actores críticos
1 The authors are grateful for the useful comments and insights provided by Maria Alejandra Gonzalez-
Perez - Professor of Management at Universidad EAFIT (Colombia), Patricia Holly Purcell - Private
Sector Specialist - Nature, Climate and Energy, UNDP, and Dr. Sameh Wahba - Global Director, Urban,
Disaster Risk Management, Resilience and Land Global Practice, The World Bank and Mr. Ramy Zeid,
Researcher, UNDP.
2 Los autores agradecen los útiles comentarios y conocimientos proporcionados por Maria Alejandra
Gonzalez-Perez - Profesora de Administración en la Universidad EAFIT (Colombia), Patricia Holly
Purcell - Especialista en Sector Privado - Naturaleza, Clima y Energía, PNUD, y Dr. Sameh Wahba -
Director Global, Urbano, Gestión del Riesgo de Desastres, Resiliencia y Práctica Global de Tierras,
Banco Mundial y Sr. Ramy Zeid, Investigador, PNUD.
3 Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Economics of the University of Warwick. Professor of Economics and
Finance, Faculty of Economics and Political Science, Cairo University, Gamaet El Qahera St., Giza, Inside
Cairo University, Faculty of Economics & Political ScienceORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5671-2371
4 Bachelor of Arts (BA) in Economics of the University of Chicago. Economic Researcher
Economic Development and Policies Project- Egypt, Gamaet El Qahera St., Giza, Inside Cairo University,
Faculty of Economics & Political Science. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2122-5885
MAHMOUD MOHIELDIN
MIRAL SHEHATA
JEL: Q, O, H
Received: 04/01/2021
Modified: 23/04/2021
Accepted: 15/06/2021
DOI: https://doi.org/10.17230/
Ad-minister.38.1
The SDGs as an Operational Framework for Post
COVID-19 Response and Recovery1
Los ODS como marco operativo para la respuesta y recuperación post COVID-192
AD-minister Nº. 38 enero - junio 2021 pp. 5 - 42 · ISSN 1692-0279 · eISSN 2256-4322
Mahmoud Mohieldin · Miral Shehata
The SDGs as an Operational Framework for Post COVID-19 Response and Recovery
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hacia el logro de los Objetivos de Desarrollo Sostenible (ODS), a saber, los gobiernos nacionales; gobiernos
locales y regionales y comunidades locales; y el sector empresarial, así como las interacciones entre estos
actores que facilitan la implementación de los ODS.
El documento también analiza cómo los ODS proporcionan un marco operativo para reconstruir mejor durante
las fases de respuesta y recuperación de la crisis y cómo la pandemia de COVID-19 ha cambiado el escenario
de las políticas para reinventar los roles desempeñados por los diferentes actores.
Por último, el documento desarrolla tres factores críticos que darían forma al grado de progreso en la próxima
década, a saber, datos confiables, financiamiento adecuado y la implementación efectiva de políticas de desarrollo.
PALABRAS CLAVES
COVID-19, Pandemia, Objetivos de Desarrollo Sostenible (ODS), Políticas de desarrollo, Crisis
INTRODUCTION
Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) has been facing challenges
even before the COVID-19 pandemic. The UN report on the SDGs progress highlights
that despite progress in a number of domains, on some of the goals, progress has
been slow or even reversed. Extreme poverty and child mortality rates continued to
decline and incidence of certain chronic diseases has been reduced considerably and
certain targets of gender equality have seen progress and many countries are taking
actions to protect the environment. However, despite recording its lowest point since
tracking, poverty rate was projected to be 6% in 2030. Hunger has been on the rise
for the third consecutive year; biodiversity has been lost at an alarming rate and
greenhouse gas emissions have continued to increase. The pre pandemic period also
witnessed a lag in the required level of sustainable development financing and other
means of implementation as well as an absence of strong and eective institutions
to respond adequately to these massive and interrelated cross- border challenges
(Gonzalez-Perez, Mahmoud, Hult & Velez-Ocampo, 2021; Mahmoud, Piedrahita-
Carvajal, Velez-Ocampo & Gonzalez-Perez, 2021).
The path to the SDGs implementation has been witnessing heterogeneities within
and across countries, thus slowing down any progress towards “leaving no one behind”.
There are substantial divergences across regions and among countries, with the most
vulnerable and low-income developing countries lagging progress on SDGs and
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AD-minister Nº. 38 enero - junio 2021 pp. 5 - 42 · ISSN 1692-0279 · eISSN 2256-4322
bearing the burden of the ongoing obstacles to the SDGs implementation as shown in
(Figure 1). About 84.3% of multidimensionally poor people live in Sub-Saharan Africa
and South Asia, the Arab Region witnessed the only increase in extreme poverty as a
result of conflicts that plague the region and Africa remains largely o track on the
2030 Agenda (ESCWA, 2020; OPHI & UNDP, 2020; SDGCA, 2020).
Figure (1): SDG Composite Index, 2020 (Range: 0–100)
74
74
79 79
70
85
56
55
39
80
90
LIDCs (n=55)
EMs (n=75)
AEs (n=34)
70
60
50
40
30
Source: Benedek e t al., A Post-Pandemic Assessment of the Sustainable Development Goals, 2021
Numbers are base d on 2020 SDG Index; and Dashb oard Reports. Note: Th e SDG Index aggregates dat a on
individual SD Gs into a composite index. T he index is based on pre–COV ID-19 data. Plots exclude extreme
values for emerging markets (EMs) and advanced economies (AEs). LIDC = low-income developing country.
Even within the same country, rural and urban dierentials are evident in areas
such as poverty reduction, education and health care (UN, 2019). To demonstrate,
of the over 400 million who are projected to remain poor in 2030 in Africa, two
thirds are projected to be in rural areas (SDGCA, 2020). All of these facts combined
underscore that as of 2019 the world was not moving fast enough towards achieving
the 2030 Agenda. In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic threatens to reverse a lot of the
progress that has been achieved towards the SDGs. The Human Development Index
(HDI) was estimated to suer a “steep and unprecedented decline” in 2020 for the
first time since the measure has been computed 30 years ago as reflected in figure 2.
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