# COVID-19 and the UN Sustainable Development Goals: Threat to Solidarity or an Opportunity?
## 4 Findings and Discussion: Non-financial Impacts
In terms of mass surveillance, Google and Apple have formed a partnership to enable the tracking of Android and iOS devices, providing information that health authorities will be able to use to map the spread of COVID-19 infection [39]. Communication technology is not a silver bullet as access is not universal, but it seems to promise cost-effective penetration of populations and user identification. More than 60% of the globe has access to either a mobile or smart phone [40], though this masks that in developed economies, 75% of the population has access to mobile internet connectivity, while only 40% of the lower- and middle-income population has access. Moreover, in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, there remains persistent gaps in gender usage and between rural and urban take-up [41]. There is already a valuable historical precedent for this surveillance strategy, in the form of a developed framework for managing the contagion of the Ebola disease [42], and detecting those with latent tuberculosis infection [43]. Still, civil liberty and privacy advocacy groups see danger in this development as Big Tech and governments may misuse such information. While the political dangers are real, this technological and strategic approach may turn out to be an unexpected enabler of SDG implementation, in particular towards improving public health (SDG-3), with spillover effects that contribute to other SDGs. For example, there is evidence that pro-growth government spending during a recession carries \"significant positive multipliers in social protection, health and education sectors\" [44]. The same can be said about the positive effects of seeking green public procurement (GPP), which can not only contribute to economic development but also promote environmental benefits and even focus on the non-environmental part of the Sustainable Development Goals [45]. GPP can also be seen as a valuable resource especially for small and medium enterprises to reduce their risks and be prepared in times of crisis, promoting marketing growth and green networks [46]. The IMF (International Monetary Fund) expects low-income countries to suffer most, through growing capital outflows [47] and flight into the dollar and euro, while the strengthening of the dollar could be damaging to economies dependent on the export of natural resources. The poor, not only in emerging and low-income economies, with low savings and less access to health care are expected to suffer disproportionately more [47]. Many developing nations will become poorer. The higher unemployment rates and the expected difficulties in servicing debt obligations means that chronic problems such as limited food supplies (SDG2), reduced access to health care (SDG3) and disruption to school education (SDG4), among others, will worsen. Developing nations, especially in Africa and Latin America, will also take longer to recover from these damages, and will need much support in respect of aid and subsidies, before they can get back on their feet. It is no exaggeration to suggest that the impacts of COVID-19 on the global economy will be more intense and long-lasting than those felt during the 2008-2009 global financial crisis. It therefore poses a serious threat to the development prospects of less industrialized nations, which will now need more time to implement the SDGs. All nations have been caught unprepared for a pandemic. In anticipation of a demand for assistance, on March 3 2020, the World Bank allocated USD 12 billion emergency funding to help developing countries strengthen their health systems against COVID-19 [48]. The COVID-19 crisis is revealing chronic underinvestment in healthcare systems over the last decade among developed economies (in governance, financing, service delivery, medicines and equipment, health workers and information communication) [49], and a critical lack of resilience in these systems [50; 51]. Further, addressing such failings may pose a serious danger to global investments in social and healthcare systems, both directly and indirectly.