The international community increasingly recognizes vulnerability as a major obstacle to sustainable development. Recent global crises, including the COVID-19 pandemic, climate change, biodiversity loss, economic instability, rising debt burdens, and disruptions to global trade and supply chains, have exposed and intensified the structural vulnerabilities faced by many developing countries. While these shocks affect all countries, their impacts are often disproportionately severe for countries with limited resilience, high exposure to external shocks, and constrained capacity to respond and recover. These realities have reinforced growing international recognition that national income alone does not adequately capture vulnerability or sustainable development needs.
The call for measures that better reflect multidimensional vulnerability has evolved over several decades through major intergovernmental processes, including Agenda 21, the Barbados Programme of Action, the Mauritius Strategy, the SAMOA Pathway, and numerous United Nations General Assembly resolutions. Originally advanced in the context of Small Island Developing States (SIDS), the Multidimensional Vulnerability Index (MVI) has since evolved into a universal framework applicable to all developing countries, recognizing that vulnerability is multidimensional, systemic, and not confined to any single category of States.
The MVI provides a multidimensional and evidence-based approach to assessing structural vulnerability and resilience across the economic, environmental, and social dimensions of sustainable development. It complements existing income-based measures by helping identify countries that face heightened risks from external shocks and stressors, while also assessing their structural resilience capacities. The framework includes both a quantitative index and country-led Vulnerability-Resilience Country Profiles (VRCPs), which support more tailored national analysis, planning, and resilience-building strategies.
The work on the MVI reflects ongoing efforts within the United Nations system and the broader international community to strengthen understanding of vulnerability, support evidence-based policymaking, and promote more equitable access to concessional finance, sustainable development support, and resilience-building measures for vulnerable developing countries.
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