Around the world, frontline workers have shown extraordinary heroism in keeping us safe. Communities everywhere have rallied together to pull through. The world’s best scientists are intensely focused on finding a vaccine. While millions are self-isolating, we have come together in new and incredible ways.

This spirit is shaping a new collective resolve to ‘build back better’. Around the world, parliamentarians are wrestling with the dilemmas of moving from lockdown to re-start, juggling the risks of a double-peak in the infection, which we know will trigger a double dip recession.

That recession is already set to be the longest and deepest in living memory. And so as we plan for a just, green recovery, policy makers everywhere are debating similar questions. What are the best measures to get our constituents back to work? What are the best policies for a job-rich recovery that speeds our path to a net zero carbon world? How do we offer a helping hand for the hardest hit, especially low paid workers, the young, women and those in the informal economy? Can we link support for firms to better behaviour in the future in the future, like paying taxes and cutting carbon? How do we support small businesses and the self-employed? Can we take advantage of low oil prices, to phase out subsidies, or switch subsidies to greener energy? Can we exploit very interest rates to mobilise investment for this new world, when we face huge bills for the price of lockdown, and uncertain tax revenues in the years to come? For many, the challenge is extra-tough as remittance flows dry up. And many in politics are having to fight to keep these discussions in the full glare of democratic work through parliaments.

As we debate these questions, we know there will some who want to retreat to a comfort zone or build every higher walls. But the only problem with trying to build a fortress is that it soon becomes a life under siege. We can’t solve these questions, and keep the SDGs in sight, by working alone. Pandemics do not stop at passport control.

That’s why it’s more important now than ever to learn from each other and to make sure our multi-lateral organisations, like the World Bank and the IMF, are in close touch with frontline realities and are equipped with the resources needed to make a difference.

Over the months to come, we will be making sure that the Parliamentary Network is supporting parliamentarians around the world in navigating these dilemmas. To lead is to choose. And ahead of us, we have some very, very tough choices to make. Much depends on choosing well.