Enhancing regional-level engagement

accountability while providing an evidence-based platform to advocate for supportive actions from other stakeholders such as national governments. Beyond responding COVID-19, lessons learned from ACT-A will be important to enhance MO co-ordination around the end-to-end development of countermeasures to address both pandemic threats and neglected diseases primarily impacting the developing world, with equity as a central principle.

2. Enhancing regional level engagement to address transboundary issues, contextualise global policy frameworks in light of country needs and priorities and build national ownership. The pandemic demonstrated the role that regional organisations play in supporting countries to

prepare for and respond to global challenges and crises. Regional and sub-regional organisations provided an important bridge between global normative perspectives and country priorities in the context of COVID-19, putting global policy advice into context and building demand and ownership among member states. These organisations reinforce the capacities of their member states by providing technical advice around a coordinated research agenda, promoting access to critical infrastructure such as advanced laboratories, supporting the harmonisation of regulatory environments and trade policies and providing consolidated purchasing power for critical goods. Most critically, expanded dialogue with regional organisations around PPR could help ensure global initiatives and MO co-ordination reflect the needs and priorities of the countries they are meant to benefit. Enhanced MDB co-ordination with regional organisations as implementing partners and provision of financial and technical assistance could help further expand their capacity to play this role.

Fully implementing UNDS reform commitments to enhance collaboration at the regional and sub-regional levels is an opportunity to strengthen linkages among regional, sub-regional and national

actors to address transboundary development challenges. The UN’s work at the regional level complements the efforts of UNCTs in boosting analytical and policy development capacity around regional issues and challenges. To date, Regional Collaborative Platforms (RCPs) in each region have convened experts from UNDS entities around issue-based coalitions on sub-regional and regional development priorities and promoted more systematic interactions with Regional Economic and Social Commissions (RECs).90 Strengthening linkages between these regional platforms and the RCs and have helped reinforce the capacities of UNCTs to address both country-level and cross-border challenges, with regional commissions increasingly forming part of UNCTs91. Working across regional and sub-regional organisations may be one means of building upon the UN’s analytical and policy development capacity and expand access to RECs and RCPs support among national governments.

90 https://www.un.org/ecosoc/sites/www.un.org.ecosoc/files/files/en/2021doc/RC_system_review_SG%20REPORT_FI-

NAL_07June2021.pdf 91 https://documents-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/N22/326/75/PDF/N2232675.pdf?OpenElement; https://www. un.org/ecosoc/sites/www.un.org.ecosoc/files/files/en/qcpr/11_%20The%20Regional%20Approach.pdf