The COVID-19 pandemic has caused immense suffering around the world. It has taken millions of lives, reversed decades of development progress, exacerbated gender inequality and made the task of achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030 even more difficult.

Through response and recovery efforts, however, opportunities exist to build a greener, more inclusive and resilient future. The experience of the pandemic has shown, for example, that where high-quality Internet  connectivity is coupled with flexible working arrangements, many jobs that were traditionally considered to be urban can be performed in rural areas too.

This change has opened up new opportunities for rural development, which is fundamental to achieving the SDGs. Some 67 per cent of the populations of low-income countries and 60 per cent of lower-middle-income countries are rural. Rural areas contain most of the planet’s natural capital, which is currently being depleted and degraded. Furthermore, about 80 per cent of those below the poverty line live in rural areas, and about one-fifth of rural people live in extreme poverty – a rate that is four times higher than for the urban population.

In this context, the World Social Report 2021 calls for a reconsideration of rural development, aimed at ending the rural-urban divide and better protecting the health of the planet. It calls for renewed attention to in situ urbani-zation as a model of rural development that can both raise the living standards of rural people and mitigate urban ills. It also urges greater investment in sustainable agriculture and infrastructure and expanding rural access to the Internet, since rural household access is generally half that of urban areas.

I commend this report to all policymakers and other stakeholders committed to ending the rural-urban divide and accelerating efforts to deliver the Sustainable Development Goals.