The pandemic has triggered an unprecedented development emergency, rolling back progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals at risk. The United Nations Secretary-General’s COVID-19 Response and Recovery Trust Fund is bringing the power, speed and reach of the United Nations to countries and people to recover better together.
The Fund is working hand-in-hand with countries and help them to cope with and recover from the pandemic’s social and economic impacts.
The investments are diverse but align with some common principles: concrete and immediate action, a focus on Leaving No One Behind, and a commitment to inclusion.
Now it is the time to invest in multilateralism. If we stand together, we will rise together. We will recover better together.
The pandemic has revealed the deep fragilities in our world. To tackle these fragilities, we need to reduce inequality and injustice, and to strengthen the bonds of mutual support and trust.
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres (10 January 2021)
How we Fund
The fund invests across the three windows.
WINDOW 1: Enable Governments and Communities to suppress the transmission of the virus
- Support countries to fully implement their National Plans for Combating COVID-19, helping them to close critical gaps, for example, pertaining to limiting transmission, the acquisition of essential equipment and supplies, scaling up country preparedness and response operations, and the payment of salaries and incentives to their healthcare and social workforce; and
- Assist non-health ministries and government agencies (such as the ministries of education, agriculture, women’s empowerment, transport, interior, labour, social welfare, and public services), along with local governments, to maintain situation rooms and to provide critical services interrupted by COVID-19.
WINDOW 2: Mitigate the Socioeconomic Impact and safeguard people and their livelihoods
- Enhance social protection mechanisms through immediate impact measures; scale-up cash transfers, insurance, food security, asset creation, and safety nets; and relieve the disproportionate burden of COVID-19 on women and children;
- Meet children’s food and educational needs through school meal programmes and access to learning;
- Promote digital innovations that boost employment, support livelihoods, and improve the provision of social services in line with COVID-19 response measures.
WINDOW 3: Recover Better
- Strengthen and test national preparedness measures, inclusive of: integrated disease surveillance and response and community-based surveillance; maintenance of key services and a health-care workforce during crises; laboratory capacity; public procurement protocols and logistics; clear and targeted communications; cross-border collaboration; and national plans that include dedicated budget lines for funding preparedness;
- Invest in effective and innovative delivery of public services to achieve sustainable and inclusive economies that leave no-one behind and safeguard country SDG programmes from COVID-19-related setbacks.
Results
The Fund is meant to help countries cope with and recover from the social and economic impacts of the pandemic. Within weeks of its launch, and with generous support from 20 contributors, and has funded 80 programs across 67 countries. The Fund was designed to move fast and to respond countries’ most critical needs, where investments can have the greater impact in sustainable development. The Fund builds on the UN Development System backbone at country level, with the country presence and expertise of UN entities and in-country partners. The Fund has since programmed US$75 million to 80 programmes spanning 67 countries. This report provides an interim update on what these investments have achieved and the people they have helped, from stopping the spread of the virus, to guarantee the continuity of social and health services and creating new livelihoods opportunities.
Past Events
The “Recover Better Together” Action Forum on 26 June 2020 helped catalyze the partnerships and finance the Fund needs to make lasting change. The Fund has helped expand the reach of social safety nets and close the digital divide; and it has built infrastructure, including for water and sanitation, to support both immediate response and longer-term resiliency in countries around the world.
