Social Protection Resource Centre

SIGAD-UNCTAD Geneva Project

Project Title: SIGAD-UNCTAD Geneva Project
Duration: 12 months
Project Lead: Dr. Safdar Sohail

The crisis triggered by the Covid-19 pandemic and the persistent problems such as rising global temperatures have posed multiple challenges to the world. In particular, for developing countries, the vulnerability has been acutely exposed by the crisis that could impede their efforts in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Hence it is no surprise that the most recent climate summit in Glasgow called for global efforts in various areas including “continue supporting developing country Parties in identifying and addressing both current and emerging capacity-building gaps” and “further integrate adaptation into local, national and regional planning”. However, delivering the climate commitments requires fundamental economic transformation and integrated policy strategies. Such transformation will not be easy particularly given the global economy has not been fully recovered from the Covid-19 pandemic shock, which has hit the world hard since early 2020, causing millions of lives to be lost, the deepest economic recession since the 1930s, huge job losses, and sharp declines of global trade and FDI. Most recently, due to the ongoing war in Ukraine, broken lines of commodities trade and grain, fertilizer and fuel production have started to trickle down to the developing world as high food and fuel prices, food shortages, and food riots. The supply shock in grains and fuel, climate change and the COVID pandemic all point out to the urgency of tackling persistent challenges of food, energy, and climate crisis.
Given these pressing multifaceted and complex challenges, it is more imperative than ever for developing countries like Pakistan to adopt innovative and integrated policy strategies to pursue resilient, green, and transformative development, mobilize the necessary resources and improve institutional capabilities.
Against this backdrop, UNCTAD has developed a project that aims to assist four major developing countries in Asia in their efforts to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and green industrialization i.e., Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Pakistan, and Turkey; to achieve the 2030 Agenda through: 1) effective integrated policy strategies and improved capacity at national level, including South-South peer-learning; and 2) economic cooperation and policy coordination at regional level.
SIGAD has joined hands with UNCTAD to implement the Pakistan Green Industrialization Project.

Project Assistant: Ms. Najya Ali
Email: najya@sprc.org.pk