The COVID19 pandemic has shown the fragility of the global system, highlighted inequalities, and left the most vulnerable groups exposed. It has shown solidarity on global, regional, and local levels both working and failing. The immediate aftermath of a crisis that has affected the enjoyment of human rights, social and economic protection as well as global trade, brings hunger for change and the hope of renewal. It is not unusual, however, that after the initial shock and the calls for reform, the world slips back into the old routines. The appetite for reform is suppressed by the yearning for the comforting certainty of the familiar.

2020 must be the year when the call for structural reforms is taken seriously, that words are followed by action. Governments will need the courage to accept that some decisions in the past might have been wrong or insufficient, and they need the courage to make the necessary changes.

The holistic approach of “Building Back Better” has become the concept that has most resonated in terms of postCOVID19 reconstruction. It is a call of hope. To reconstruct and to build back a society requires resources and strength. But to Build Back Better requires yet another ingredient: courage. It demands the courage to go beyond what is familiar and what we already know, and to rebuild new structures. Forging change requires valour and political will. And if the COVID19 pandemic has taught us one thing, it is that we cannot ignore the need for change.