“Digital Future of Development Dialogue,” a UN event, above, was held in September 2019. The UN is pushing to widen traditional pools of funding through digital channels to lift the faltering Sustainable Development Goals, especially in the Covid-19 era. But risks to such an approach abound. ©SUMAYA AGHA/UNDP
A view of Panama City from the apartment of the author, a former vice president and foreign minister of Panama. The country is slowly reopening after months of lockdown, although the number of confirmed Covid-19 cases keeps rising. ISABEL SAINT MALO
A UN Development Program workshop on gender and disaster-risk reduction related to climate change, Cambodia, August 2019. In an essay, an expert on the UN development system says it “cries out for reform” but is stuck in inertia. MANUTH BUTH/UNDP CAMBODIA
