Shaping the Trends of Our Time(2020)

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The new report examines five mega trends: climate change; demographic shifts, particularly population ageing; urbanization; the emergence of digital technologies; and inequalities –that are affecting economic, social and environmental outcomes. Efforts to reverse or redirect these trends must be reinforced to ensure that we achieve the full measure of the 2030 Agenda, and set the stage for an inclusive, sustainable and equitable future during the next 75 years.

All trends are the result of human activity, and as such, they can be shaped by human decisions and policy choices. By making the right choices today, without further delay, it is not too late to shape the major trends of our time in a direction that is sustainable and delivers benefits to all. Policies can influence a single megatrend as well as other megatrends that interact with it. This creates the potential for co-benefits, where a positive result is achieved in one area through an intervention designed to generate change in another. Such policy interventions can propel more effective, mutually reinforcing changes, and significantly greater impacts.

The United Nations can help to frame responses to the mega trends in terms that encourage domestic political consensus to form behind taking sustained action. In doing so, the United Nations can assist in mobilizing needed global support for individual countries, particularly those with fewer resources.

Key takeaways and potential for the United Nations

The megatrends generate adverse effects because of deficiencies or outright failures of policy. Moving forward, the United Nations can help to frame responses to the megatrends in terms that encourage domestic political consensus to form behind taking sustained action. In doing so, the United Nations can assist in mobilizing needed global support for individual countries, particularly those with fewer resources. In the area of climate change, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change will continue to guide coordinated global action for mitigation and adaptation. The United Nations plays a central role in promoting the mobilization of climate financing, and provides critical technical support to countries as they prepare and update nationally determined contributions and implementation plans in accordance with the Paris Agreement. Major international environmental conventions on biodiversity, desertification and chemicals, and a host of other agreements reached under the auspices of the United Nations guide Member States in addressing the full range of biodiversity and environmental challenges. The United Nations is the definitive source of data on demographic developments. This capacity can be further leveraged to deepen understanding of driving forces, advantages and disadvantages, and policies that can shape demographic trajectories over time. The United Nations can enable open discussion of policies to ensure that population trends generate potential demographic dividends, and help countries to anticipate and implement changing policy requirements. This can be of particular value in cases where the required changes run counter to deep-seated traditions and entrenched social norms.

Towards sustainable urbanization, platforms such as the Global Urban Observatory and City Prosperity Index of the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat) provide data essential for understanding and effective action. The United Nations also plays a critical role in supporting countries and cities to implement the New Urban Agenda, a road map for pursuing the right policies, planning and financing. It backs strategic partnerships and multistakeholder consultations, such as the World Urban Forum, that move sustainable urbanization forward. As technology advances, its use must align with universally held ethical and human rights standards. The United Nations is uniquely positioned to facilitate dialogue among stakeholders to develop a global compact on agreed principles for managing frontier technologies. It can bring Member States and all relevant stakeholders together to forge consensus on legal and ethical standards, including for research and development. The 75th anniversary of the United Nations in 2020 presents an opportunity for a new “global commitment to digital cooperation” enshrining goals, principles and priority actions. There is ample evidence of what has and has not worked to reduce inequality. Inaction is typically not due to a lack of technical advice or even, in most cases, adequate capacity. More often, mobilizing support for policy responses to inequality runs into a wall of vested interests. The United Nations can help governments overcome the political constraints, collect disaggregated data to assess the extent and nature of inequalities, and measure the success of interventions to reduce them. As the most important multilateral forum for addressing inequalities, including through its Commission on the Status of Women, the United Nations can strengthen international consensus around ending the most pervasive and damaging of all inequalities, the inequitable treatment of women and girls.

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About the United Nations Economists Network

The UN Economists Network is a global network, led by the United Nations Assistant Secretary-General for Economic Development and Chief Economist, Elliott Harris, to

• facilitate collaboration and joint work among UN system entities on issues of shared interest and relevance to the sustainable development agenda and

• to provide a network of support on economic, financial and social policy issues to Resident Coordinator Offices and United Nations Country Teams.