COVID-19 has caused an extraordinarysocio-economic crisis throughout the world.More than a year into the pandemic, the world isstill in firefighting mode. Long-term economicscarring effects and an uneven recovery,potentially leading to a sharply diverging world,are also increasingly coming into focus. Thesevere fiscal impacts of the crisis are triggeringdebt distress in a growing number of countries,severely limiting the ability of many countriesto invest in recovery, climate action, and thesustainable development goals (SDGs).Such fiscal impacts, along with the rise ofvaccine nationalism, have also resulted indeveloping countries facing enormous difficultiesin accessing vaccines against COVID19,which threatens to prolong the recoveryperiod. Unless we take decisive action ondebt and liquidity challenges, we risk another‘lost decade’ for many developing countries,putting the achievement of the SDGs by the2030 deadline definitively out of reach.