Skip to main content

Expert Opinions & Stories

Published Date
Search for Expert Opinion

Unsplash/Lightscape Blog

Extraordinary times calls for extraordinary measures. The COVID-19 pandemic has required countries to deploy large spending for emergency health response and relief measures for households and firms…

Unsplash/Prayag Tejwani Op-ed

As the socio-economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic spread across the length and breadth of Asia and the Pacific, finance ministries are continuing their relentless efforts to inject trillions of…

UN News / WB State Inter Agency Group on Disaster Management Blog

“We have to learn from COVID… We can’t wish away systemic risk. It’s much much cheaper, much more effective to invest upfront in order to avoid disaster and so it is with climate change – a crisis…

Pixabay / Manuel Dario Fuentes Hernandez Blog

“We have a rare and short window of opportunity to rebuild our world for the better”
- António Guterres, United Nations Secretary-General

Not undermining the challenges posed by COVID-19, there…

Unsplash / Dominik Vanyi Blog

The current COVID-19 crisis has shown that governments can act quickly and decisively if needed and collaborate to work collectively. So, why are governments not acting as quickly and decisively in…

ESCAP / Daphna Beerdsen Blog

The year 2020 has witnessed an unprecedented COVID-19 crisis where many human lives have been lost. We have also witnessed the tremendous magnitude and speed of collapse in economic activity–…

Shutterstock / Khongtham Blog

The destruction caused by natural disasters, which is becoming more frequent and severe due to climate change, is graphic and frightening. However, there is a significant impact on the financial…

Unsplash / Bill Oxford Blog

On the frontlines of the battle to contain the public health and economic fallouts of the global COVID-19 pandemic, the Asia-Pacific region faces crucial policy choices as it tries to balance short…

Pixabay/Sasin Tipchai Blog

For the first time in history, remittances are expected to become the largest source of external financing for low- and middle-income countries worldwide. Remittances are expected to reach $550…

UN Photo/ Kibae Park Blog

Is the current economic growth ‘purposeful”? And how do we define ‘purposefulness’?

While this may seem a profound philosophical query, there is no questioning that growth that undermines…