Despite COVID-19 hurdles, online businesses in Zambia are clinging to their big dreams while the government strengthens the nation’s e-commerce ecosystem.
New projections show stronger growth than expected in 2021, but the untackled problems of inequality, indebtedness and weak investment threaten hopes for a more resilient future.
In years to come, we will look back at 2020 as the moment that changed everything. Nowhere else has unprecedented and unforeseen growth occurred as in the digital and e-commerce sectors, which have boomed amid the COVID-19 crisis.
UNCTAD has equipped women traders in border areas of Malawi, Tanzania and Zambia with the information and entrepreneurial skills they need to survive and recover from the crisis.
Drawing on a powerful new database that tracks and traces the plastic life cycle, UNCTAD shows where countries can apply trade policy pressure to reduce pollution.
The technology that runs cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin could be used in many applications that contribute to sustainable development, from crop insurance to vaccine supply chains.
Although many low and middle-income economies are unprepared for the new technological wave, some are punching above their weight, and a new UNCTAD report spotlights the overperformers.
UNCTAD’s Technology and Innovation Report 2021 warns, however, of serious implications for development objectives if poor communities are overwhelmed or left behind by the new technological wave.
Switzerland replaced the Netherlands at the top of UNCTAD's Business-to-Consumer E-commerce Index 2020, which ranks 152 countries on their readiness to engage in online commerce.
She is committed to working with all stakeholders to ensure the people served by the organization get the support they need during the crisis and on the path to recovery.
