This policy dialogue paper has been generated to highlight the essential need for investments at scale in the COVID-19 recovery strategies. The role of investments is presented as a technical cross-cutting requisite that supports and contributes to the UN Framework for the immediate socio-economic response to COVID-19.

The UN framework puts in to practice the UN Secretary-Generals Shared Responsibility,
Global Solidarity report through five workstreams;

1) Health First; Protecting Health Services and Systems during the Crisis;
2) Protecting People; Social Protection and Social Services;
3) Economic Response and Recovery; Protecting Jobs, Small and Medium
Enterprises and Informal Sector Workers;
4) Macro-economic Response and Multilateral Collaboration;
5) Social Cohesion and Community Resilience.

These workstreams are connected by a strong environmental sustainability and gender equality imperative to “build back better”, the guiding principle for COVID-19 socioeconomic recovery.

Across all five workstreams, investments will be required, in some spheres such as Health First and Protecting People and the Macro-economic Response large scale finance packages are already being provided by the IFIs to support government COVID-19 policy responses and to shore up public budgets. By June the International Monetary Fund has injected US$ 25 billion into the global economy.

The purpose of this paper is to offer a complimentary discussion topic to support the opening of new policy spaces in the terms of economic transformation and regaining growth trajectories for development financing. It diversifies the current discourse by applying an investment lens to stimulate the five workstreams. Using published data and data projections its advocates that investments provide one of the center pieces for recovery strategies having the value-addition to create explicit linkages between the COVID-19 socio-economic recovery response, SDG commitments, climate and human rights.

In this context analysis of country economic structures and growth impacts are discussed and basic investment requirements highlighted. Concepts for catalytic investments that pave the way to enhanced resilience against shocks through a mix of circular economy and the development of domestic and near neighborhood value chains are presented for extending investment policy discussion to address the new normal.