Amid Global Crises, Speakers Discuss Ways to Foster Sustainable, Resilient Societies at Meeting of Second Committee, Economic and Social Council
As the world reels from armed conflicts, climate disasters and spiralling risks, speakers highlighted the need to bolster financing for resilience, risk reduction and social protection in a joint meeting today of the Second Committee (Economic and Financial) and the Economic and Social Council.
Opening the meeting, on “Fostering sustainable and resilient societies in uncertain times”, Second Committee Chair Muhammad Abdul Muhith (Bangladesh) said the world has been rocked by “repeated shocks and multiple overlapping crises — from the COVID‑19 pandemic to the current food, fuel and financial crises”.
Armed conflict is a deadly reality for billions of people, he noted, while climate-related disasters continue to increase in frequency and severity. These shocks overlap with and intensify underlying structural crises in livelihoods, care and the environment. The current meeting aims to discuss through two panel discussions what resilience and growth mean in the context of today’s world.
Co-Chairing the meeting, Bob Rae, President of the Economic and Social Council, said: “In this world of skyrocketing risks and vulnerabilities, the need for universal, gender-responsive social protection systems has never been greater.” In implementing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, such systems could play a key role in putting the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) back on track and avert further reversals.
Investing in social protection systems has many synergies with investing in efforts to address the climate crisis, through fostering resilience among those who have contributed least to it yet often face the worst impacts, he continued. Properly designed, implemented and financed, social protection systems can maximize their contribution to gender equality, poverty eradication, crisis resilience and broader processes of economic and social transformation.
Speaking in a keynote address, Isabel Ortiz, Director, Global Social Justice, said some countries may face difficulties with protection schemes due to minimal budgets, but alternatives exist for reaching the SDGs. Universal protection can be achieved by increasing worker productivity and enhancing consumption in a system combining public social insurance and financial contributions. The main pillar is public social insurance, which is financed by employers’ and workers’ contributions, with accommodations for women whose lives are disrupted by childbearing.
In countries with small budgets, she stressed the need to seek ways to expand financing and address structural issues, outlining several options. These include taxing corporate profits, digital services, financial transactions, carbon emissions and mining and gas; increasing social security contributions; fighting illicit financial flows; eliminating debt through national debt resolution mechanisms, restructuring debt or using debt swaps; scaling up aid and transfers; and promoting new special drawing rights (SDRs) allocations.
The Committee then held a panel discussion on the “World Survey on the Role of Women in Development”, featuring speakers Sarah Hendriks, Director of Policy, Programme and Intergovernmental Division at the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN-Women); Vidya Diwakar, Deputy Director of the Chronic Poverty Advisory Network and Research Fellow at the Institute of Development Studies in the United Kingdom; and June Barrett, Vice-President of the International Domestic Workers’ Federation.
Ms. Hendriks noted that social protection coverage has continuously increased over the past decade — meaning more women and girls have access to a minimum of income security when faced with normal life-course events, such as having a child, entering old age or losing employment, compared to 10 years ago. “We know it is women who often absorb microeconomic shocks at the household level,” she stated, noting that social protection supports enable women to avoid negative coping strategies when a crisis hits. These include selling off assets, taking children out of school, or going hungry. However, almost half of the global population — including 2 billion women and girls — are still entirely unprotected by social protection mechanisms, whether they be cash benefits, unemployment protection or access to affordable healthcare.
Gender gaps in social protection have widened, suggesting that recent gains have benefited men more than women, she said. Looking at social protection measures adopted by 171 countries in response to the recent cost of living crisis, only 18 per cent of over 1,000 policy measures were explicitly aimed at increasing women’s economic security — by providing either cash or in-kind transfers. She noted that extending social protection to the world’s 770 million women who are still in informal employment is a key priority. Citing progress in Mexico and Tunisia, she nonetheless recalled that almost two-thirds of the world’s women still give birth without any maternity benefits.
Ms. Diwakar stressed that crises like inflation and climate-related disasters disproportionately impact women. She cited Peru and the United Republic of Tanzania, where almost double the share of households in poverty were headed by women, who reported losing both income and assets due to shocks. When crises hit, there are fewer options or coping responses available for women due to adverse social or gender norms.
She called for the promotion of risk-informed social protection, including increasing payment values and their frequency, especially during times of crisis; working with women’s rights and informal worker associations to identify and reach those in need; streamlining monitoring across systems; and strengthening coordination on data collection with humanitarian and development actors.
Ms. Barrett pointed to a recent meeting of black domestic workers in their late sixties. As she looked in the crowd, “I realized I was looking in the mirror”, she said. She continues to work because “I can’t think about retiring, because there is no Social Security, there are no plans that I can rock back on”. The amount she would receive would mean she could not afford to live in the United States and would have to return to her home country, Jamaica. Living in Miami, she is a member of the Miami Workers Center, and a long-time leader of the National Domestic Workers Alliance. The membership consists of nannies, house cleaners and home-care workers throughout the United States — work with low wages that are “barely enough to support our families”. The work is physically demanding, and many childcare workers have no access to health insurance and paid sick leave.
She recalled that care workers who contracted COVID‑19 from patients were sometimes sent home for two weeks without pay, while having families to take care of. In 2023, she noted, United States President Joseph R. Biden issued an executive order to all Government agencies to address the care crisis, which will benefit domestic and direct care workers within private and public institutions. Last week, United States Vice-President Kamala Harris doubled down on her commitment with a groundbreaking proposal to extend Medicare to cover home-care workers — which will make care accessible to millions of older adults, including herself. She recalled that in the 1930s domestic workers and farm workers were excluded from labour laws. “Domestic work is real work,” she stressed. “Please hear our cry.”
A second panel discussion was held on “Financing Resilience: an imperative for the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, UN-DRR (disaster risk reduction) and WMO (World Meteorological Organization)”. Panelists included Krzysztof Szczerski, Permanent Representative of Poland to the United Nations and Chair of the Commission for Social Development at its sixty-third session, and Ruth Richardson, Executive Director of the Accelerator for Systemic Risk Assessment.
Introducing the topic, Chair Muhith noted that the world faces compounded effects of the pandemic, escalating climate-related disasters and ongoing conflicts, stressing that “the urgency for robust financing mechanisms is greater than ever”. For every dollar invested in risk reduction, up to $15 can be saved in post-disaster recovery costs, showcasing the clear financial benefits of resilience-focused spending.
Mr. Szczerski underscored that financing resilience should be focused on strengthening public institutions and investing in better preparedness at local levels; strengthening the ability of a society to resist and recover quickly from major shocks and crises; and investing in resilient infrastructure, as it constitutes the backbone of every economy.
Transparent, accountable, effective and efficient public institutions are key for building resilient societies, he said. As part of its development cooperation, Poland aims at building capacities in public administrations in partner countries to prevent disasters and increasing their operational capabilities to respond. Although crises and challenges are felt around the world, each region is affected differently and, in response, develops context-specific approaches.
Ms. Richardson said her group’s mission is to mainstream systemic risk assessment in policy and decision-making to advocate for transformative action that benefits all people, societies, species and ecosystems. Its recent report sets out a bold agenda to strengthen understanding and tackle systemic risks. Highlighting several key points, she noted that the current moment presents a unique global polycrisis, with new and emerging technologies that have the potential to do widespread harm. “Our communities, societies and economies are more interconnected than ever before,” she said, meaning that risks amplify each other and increase overall vulnerability.
The report further emphasizes that the dominant approach to risk assessment and response is insufficient, requiring tools to understand the nature of systemic risk, leading to comprehensive solutions — turning commitments, declarations, ambitions and goals into concrete practical steps. If Governments and the private sector realigned funding priorities to treat resilience as a high-return investment, data reveals that for every dollar invested in disaster risk reduction, “we can save up to $15 in post-disaster recovery”, she stressed.
In closing remarks, Chair Muhith stressed that resilient financing is about responding to immediate crises and a strategic approach to ensure long-term sustainability, equity and prosperity. By investing in resilience today, the global community is mitigating future risks and paving the way for inclusive and transformative growth. Looking ahead, the international community must continue to pursue innovative and collaborative approaches to fund resilience initiatives, drawing on both public and private resources.
Lok Bahadur Thapa, Permanent Representative of Nepal to the United Nations and Vice-President of the Economic and Social Council, acting as Co-Chair, noted that resilient development relies on meaningful inclusion as well as means of implementation, which consider the changing nature of risk in the twenty-first century. Inequality is on the rise, the climate crisis continues to worsen and geopolitical tensions are boiling over. Today’s discussions have provided a wealth of insights on the urgent need to strengthen resilience in the face of unprecedented global challenges, he said.
In the afternoon session, the Committee concluded its discussion on sustainable development.