May 6, 2021 – New York: Pakistan’s Ambassador to the United Nations, Munir Akram in his capacity as the President of United Nations’ Department for Economic and Social Affairs (UN-ECOSOC) convened the 7th biennial high-level Development Cooperation Forum (DCF). Dr. Sania Nishtar was invited to keynote the event. The DCF is the principal global platform for policy dialogue on development cooperation. The DCF aimed to advance international development cooperation that reduces risk, enables recovery and builds resilience in the COVID-19 period and beyond. The session brought together Liu Zhenmin, Under Secretary-General, United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs; Professor Sir Michael Marmot, Professor of Epidemiology, University College London and Special Advisor to Director-General of WHO; and Dr. Sania Nishtar. Keynoting the DCF 2021, Dr. Sania said, “The shared experiences of the last year and a half have hurt, challenged and changed us all. As a global community we must now appreciate that COVID-19 is threatening to wipe out the development gains of the last century—it is reversing three decades of gains in poverty eradication. A whole new generation now risks living in the shadow of poverty unless we take urgent action now.”
