Balance between Global Breakthrough, Breakdown Hinges on Choices We Make Now, Secretary-General Tells International Labour Organization Global Forum

Following is the text of UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ video message to the International Labour Organization (ILO) Global Forum:  “Building a Human-Centred Recovery from the COVID-19 Crisis”, in Geneva today:

Director General [Guy] Ryder, distinguished representatives of Governments, workers and employers’ organizations, ladies and gentlemen,

I commend Director General Ryder and the ILO for organizing this Global Forum.  Your gathering comes at a crucial time when our ability to recover from this pandemic — and rescue the SDGs [Sustainable Development Goals] — hangs in the balance.  For countries, for economies, for families and for workers.

As the COVID-19 pandemic grinds on, poverty is rising.  Inequalities are widening.  Household incomes are dwindling — while the world’s billionaires have seen their personal profits soar.  The situation is even worse for women, whose share of total global income is less than 35 per cent, and who face rising unemployment and the heaviest burden of care across every country.

Without robust social safety nets and decent job opportunities, many women who left the labour force during COVID-19 may find themselves unable to re-enter it — a tragedy with potentially lifelong consequences.

Meanwhile, a deeply unequal vaccine rollout and deep fiscal divides are clearing the pathway for rich countries to recover, while blocking progress for the world’s poorest countries.  Wealthy countries are investing a much higher percentage of their GDPs into recovery, while many low-income countries are trapped by spiralling debt and starved of resources — victims of a global financial system that puts profits before people.

Developing countries face a massive and enduring jobs deficit.  And we are utterly failing to confront the climate emergency with urgent, transformative, and concrete action this decade.  The world is dramatically off-target to meeting the 1.5-degree goal to which countries agreed in Glasgow, and the $100 billion commitment to help developing countries adapt.

As your theme reminds us, we need a human-centred, green recovery that puts people first.  Putting people first means achieving universal social protection, the best line of defence against shocks of all kinds and critical to a just transition.  It means strategic investments in decent jobs and accelerating the formalization of jobs in the informal sector.

Putting people first means true vaccine equity, with Governments and pharmaceutical companies working together to deliver vaccines to every person, everywhere — not just in wealthy countries — and expanding local capacity to manufacture them.  It means reforming the global financial system so all countries can access financing to support their people, including through debt relief and fairer tax systems that channel some of the massive pockets of wealth around the world to those who need it most.

Putting people first means climate commitments that match the scale and urgency of the crisis.  This includes fulfilling the promise to double adaptation finance as a first step in supporting developing countries.  It also includes technical and financial support to countries for a transition from coal to renewable energy and the creation of green jobs — mobilizing a coalition of developed countries, multilateral development banks and private finance.  And putting people first means renewing the social contract and making massive investments in their future well-being.

From health and education…to food systems and infrastructure… to social protection programmes that level the playing field…to increased support for women and young people who have suffered disproportionately throughout the pandemic…to preparing young people for the rapidly evolving world of work.

The Global Accelerator on Jobs and Social Protection is a critical part of the United Nations response.  We’re bringing together Governments, international financial institutions, civil society and the private sector to create 400 million jobs — especially in the green, care and digital economies — and extend social protection to 4 billion people currently without coverage.  I commend the ILO’s leadership and look forward to hearing the results of your deliberations at this Forum.

COVID-19 caught the world unprepared.  We cannot let this happen again.  As I said in my report on Our Common Agenda, the balance between a global breakthrough and a global breakdown hinges on the choices we make now.  Let’s meet this difficult moment with our best efforts to unite behind shared solutions for recovery, solutions that spring from solidarity, solutions that put people first.