Achieving Sustainable Recovery: Criteria for Evaluating the Sustainability and Effectiveness of Covid-19 Recovery Investments in Latin America and the Caribbean

The Covid-19 pandemic has precipitated unprecedented health, social and economic crises across the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean. All countries in the region moved quickly to implement rescue policies to safeguard lives and livelihoods. The rescue phase continues along with the challenge of orchestrating the post-COVID-19 economic recovery: designing packages of investments and initiatives to stimulate employment, liquidity, reignite sustainable and inclusive economic growth and transition towards net-zero emission and climate-resilience economies to confront the worsening climate and ecological crisis. These policies must be sustainable in the short and long term and bring institutional, social, economic/financial, and environmental co-benefits. This working paper proposes criteria for evaluating the sustainability of recovery investments and initiatives, to serve as a checklist for stakeholders to use to ensure a recovery that builds an inclusive, sustainable and resilient future for all.