


This need for flexibility and adaptability is leading governments to reconsider their multi-level governance systems and reassess their regional development priorities.

Instead, governments must act on all fronts simultaneously and in synchrony. National, regional, and local governments find they cannot count on following a straight or linear course of policy action to manage, exit and recover from the crisis. With the onset of new waves of infection in many countries since mid-2020 and the emergence of variants, governments are confronted to the limited ability to sequence policy action. The COVID-19 pandemic is requiring all levels of government to act in a context of great uncertainty and under heavy economic, fiscal and social pressure.
