The Covid-19 pandemic has caused a global humanitarian, social and economic crisis. Poverty will rise for the first time since 1998, with hundreds of millions of jobs lost and livelihoods affected. Many of the jobs affected by the pandemic depend on investments and operations of multinational enterprises (MNEs) and their buyers and suppliers in global value chains. But foreign direct investment (FDI) is estimated to fall by at least 30% in 2020 – meaning that fewer jobs than expected have been and will be created.