Introduction

The international community has now acknowledged vulnerability as a severe obstacle to development due to the damage caused by exogenous shocks and stressors to which countries are increasingly being exposed. These shocks span diverse domains, such as terms of trade fluctuations, natural disasters, supply disruptions, conflicts, civil unrest, and unprecedented shocks such as the COVID-19 pandemic. It is evident that low national income, often measured by Gross National Income per capita (GNI pc), is a weak measure of development, material welfare, or well-being.

This is particularly true for countries facing high risks of external shocks and stressors, especially if they also lack resilience. However, there is currently no international, widely accepted, quantitative benchmark to measure structural vulnerability or lack of resilience across multiple dimensions of sustainable development at the national level. With few exceptions, access to concessional financing windows depends on meeting lower income thresholds (GNI PC).

This means that vulnerable countries often lack access to affordable development support, such as concessional assistance, to help them meet their sustainable development goals while coping with and adapting to their structural vulnerabilities. A widely accepted Multidimensional Vulnerability Index (MVI) holds the potential to guide better country development and donor assistance policies, aid in the diagnosis of development challenges and in the identification of nations in need of heightened international assistance before a crisis hits. The work of the High-Level Panel of experts seeks to fill in this gap.

The Panel, which began work in March 2022, took a systematic approach to consultation and outreach, gathering inputs and suggestions from diverse stakeholders, including potential user groups, academics, and Member States. This Report summarizes the results of the Panel’s deliberations and offers recommendations. The proposed structure of the MVI aligns with the guiding principles outlined by the Secretary-General in paragraphs 80-83 of A/76/211 while incorporating an additional component, the Vulnerability and Resilience Country Profiles (VRCP).

This two-tiered structure provides:

• a quantitative assessment of structural vulnerability and resilience using a standard methodology for all developing countries, which is presented via a summary index number to rank countries and a dashboard showing individual country scores on the parts (the MVI score); and

• a more detailed, tailored, and individualized characterization of a country’s vulnerability and resilience factors, including non-structural resilience prepared by individual countries (the VRCP)