Regional cooperation is key to tackling the COVID-19 pandemic, driving green recovery, and delivering on the Sustainable Development Goals. Here are five ways regions can make this happen.
The coronavirus pandemic has exposed vulnerability of the current social-economic model to external shocks. It has also sent a wake-up call of the imperative of transitioning to greener and more inclusive development pathways. Regions stand at the centre of this transition and are taking decisive actions to shape the economy of the future – the European Union’s historic stimulus package aims for a green and inclusive recovery, and the joint African continental strategy for COVID-19 outbreak calls for regional cooperation in tackling the crisis and its social, economic and environmental impacts.
This is very encouraging, but more still needs to be done. In many areas, the transition needed is not happening fast enough to keep us on track to meet the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030. The Emissions Gap Report 2019 shows that even if all current unconditional commitments under the Paris Climate Change Agreement are implemented, temperatures are expected to rise by 3.2°C, bringing even wider-ranging and more destructive climate impacts. The Global Resource Outlook finds that material extraction has tripled over the last 50 years and led to more than 90% of global biodiversity loss.
Global material extraction, four main material categories, 1970-2017, million tons. Obtained by totalling domestic material extraction for all individual nations.
These numbers remind us that the economic, social and political transformation needed for meeting the SDGs is unprecedented and will not take place automatically. It will require a total turn-around of our lifestyles, production patterns and policy dynamics. The COVID-19 pandemic has added additional challenges as countries are struggling to cope with the public health crisis while bringing back growth and jobs.
This makes a consolidated regional approach more important than ever before. As regions are stepping up to tackle the crisis with growing solidarity, they can accelerate the green recovery and implementation of SDGs. Here are some of the ways regions can make this happen:
1. Facilitate peer-to-peer learning and benchmarking
Countries in the same region face many common challenges and trade-offs when it comes to SDG implementation, such as deterioration and depletion of natural resources, loss of biodiversity, climate adaptation and waste management. In many developing regions, policymakers also struggle with comparable institutional and capacity constraints such as weak inter-agency coordination, competing priorities, limited data in monitoring and tracking progress, and ensuring social inclusiveness in economic transition.
Here is the place where peer learning and benchmarking can come in. By sharing ideas and experience, countries can learn from their neighbours solutions that can be adapted to their own circumstances. This could also catalyse home-grown responses and drive the “race to the top”. The shared solutions can thus empower the regional community as a whole and build on their common strengths.
2. Replicate good practices from champions and pioneers
Transition to green and circular economies need champions and pioneers who are passionate about driving change and piloting new ideas. They serve as role models to countries who are looking for experience to draw upon from. Therefore, identification and collection of these good practices and successful models is of great importance for policy learning and replication.
The Green Growth Knowledge Platform offers a vast pool of such information from countries and industries. The African Alliance on Circular Economy and the Regional Coalition on Circular Economy in Latin America and the Caribbean are brining champion countries and strategic partners to share good practices and inspiring other to follow suit.
3. Inspire innovative and integrated approaches tailored to regional context
International organizations and knowledge-based civil society groups have developed numerous tools and guidelines to support countries with the green and circular transition. The newly launched GO4SDGs Menu of Services provides a snapshot of those tools. To translate them into policy and behavioural changes, they need to be tailored to regional context and meet the demand from on-the-ground practitioners. Better integration of the tools could also help improve effectiveness of application and inspire innovative approaches that cut across different sectors and policy domains.
Take green recovery as an example. For emerging economies with ambitious infrastructure construction plans, sustainable infrastructure guidelines, coupled with green finance and sustainable public procurement, can offer hands-on guidance. In regions where natural resources provide major income and suffer from double exposure to economic and climate risks, natural capital accounting and eco-innovation could help to reorient the economy and move up the value chain by investing in nature-based solutions.
4. Leverage regional leadership and partnership
Regions are increasingly taking leadership in driving the green and circular transition. One example is the Latin America and the Caribbean region, which has been making remarkable strides towards Sustainable Consumption and Production. So far, 18 countries in the region have national policies that cover Sustainable Consumption and Production; 16 countries have developed sustainable criteria for public procurement; seven have national strategies and/or action plans on sustainable public procurement; and more than five countries participated in the development of a regional ecolabelling scheme.
At a recent dialogue alongside the UN High-level Political Forum, speakers from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), Germany, World Economic Forum, SEED and International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) discussed how the newly launched initiative GO4SDGs could help foster regional leadership in green recovery and unlock opportunities for small and medium-sized enterprises and youth.
5. Strengthen coordination and cooperation at the regional level
Regions host a large group of organizations, including UN agencies, regional and international development banks, development cooperation organizations, and non-governmental organizations. While they work with countries and regions in diverse areas that contribute to SDG implementation, there is a growing call for better coordination and cooperation. The ongoing UN reform aims to strengthen “Delivering as One UN” through the UN country teams. It also underscores partnership between the UN and regional organizations. As regions are aligning policies and harmonizing rules to deepen integration, there are huge opportunities for incorporating SDGs. The figure below illustrates how global vision and national action could be connected through regional collaboration.
Regional actions, global impacts
Decoupling economic prosperity from unsustainable resource use is one of the most critical and complex challenges facing humanity today and directly linked to our success in avoiding next crisis. COVID-19 has shown the importance of cooperation in dealing with crisis and complex challenges.
As it says in an African proverb: “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together”.
In a world with growing regional integration and cooperation, “going together” at the regional level can generate global impacts and scale up the transformation needed for a greener and more inclusive future.