Over the last few years, the world has faced tremendous disruptions such as the COVID-19 pandemic, the Russia-Ukraine war and other fragilities in several countries, climate change hardships and various natural disasters that have affected the lives and livelihoods of millions of people. Further aggravated by global economic and financial market depressions, even many more have been thrown into poverty, with greater exposure to vulnerabilities and inequalities.
These disruptions have led to serious reversal problems, eroding decades worth of development progress, and consequent undermining of the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals Agenda 2030 and the Africa Union Agenda 2063. As is often the case, developing countries, many of which are in Africa, face the harshest impacts of shocks
Nonetheless, enormous challenges also present enormous opportunities for resilience and the opportunity to boost local momentum to recover progress lost, particularly within the developing countries who are the most affected by any global shocks. Approaching the risks and opportunities to people, planet, and the economy, using a sustainability lens, unearths a unique opportunity to mobilize domestic resources and deploy tailored solutions at scale.
The conference theme deepens dialogues, shared learning and strategies to accelerate resilience and recovery, across the globe, with an emphasis on Africa. It highlights questions such as: What are the pathways to recovery from shocks? What coping strategies do communities and households adopt in response to shocks, and to build resilience to better withstand future shocks? Can building the resilience of vulnerable populations set them on a new trajectory for increased growth and well-being, and how can this be implemented?
The theme also covers research evidence and evaluation practices related to how households, firms, institutions and governments respond to shocks, approaches to increase resilience in the face of future shocks, and interventions to both mitigate and adapt to shocks. It also paves the way for in-depth discussions for tailored, scalable solutions on various sub-thematic areas as highlighted.
