The World Bank’s latest Global Economic Prospects was dominated by the adverse impact of the Russian military action in Ukraine to the world economy that is just about to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Emerging market and developing economies (EMDEs) as well as least developed countries are disproportionally impacted because many households in these countries spend larger proportion on food and energy. To put numbers into the problem, the International Energy Agency (IEA) estimated that the current energy crisis risk pushing nearly 90 million people in Asia and Africa who previously had access to electricity to no longer afford basic energy.

As such, it was prompt for President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo to raise both the food and energy crises in his encounters with President Volodymyr Zelensky and President Vladimir Putin, on top of his call for a peaceful resolution to the conflict. Although similar messages have been conveyed by others, this time the messenger had a unique legitimacy: As the leader of one of the largest EMDEs and holder of the Group of 20 presidency who will host its summit in November this year.

Since its inception, G20 has been accustomed to complex issues to address global financial and economic crises. This time, however, the group is dealing with a different level of complexity requiring an extra skillful and delicate diplomacy in addition to the tables take prudent policies for sustainable – equitable and inclusive – economic growth.

In the face of extreme volatility, governments and businesses are often tempted to be shortsighted and make knee jerk policies or investment decisions. Volatilities are here to stay though, and future volatilities can only be mitigated by decisions made today in pursuit of a resilient society.

In a recent editorial, The Economist (June 18, 2022) framed the search for resilience as “reinventing globalization” and safeguarding positive effects such as lifting 1 billion people out of extreme poverty.

Reinventing globalization implies a clear departure from hyper-efficiency, global value chains based on extreme labor divisions, reinstate degrees of vertical integration, local (strategic) autonomy and circular value chains supported by longer-term contracts and higher degrees of diversification and inclusion. The (hybrid) governance translation of this ambition is largely covered by the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

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