While systemic risk has always existed, its local and national expression is now complemented by more frequent manifestations of global systemic risk. Events since the turn of the 21st century indicate that economic globalization has resulted in increasing system interdependency, complexity and uncertainty and hence magnified systemic risk as we have seen during the COVID-19 pandemic. A result of this has been that the predominant approach to the governance of systemic risk has become synonymous with strengthening resilience to transboundary and global risks. Little concern has thus far been shown internationally with systemic risk at the local and national levels, especially in low to middle income countries (LMICs). This policy brief, therefore, aims to foster the understanding of systemic risk and how UNDP, its partners and programme countries can adopt actionable ways of promoting systemic risk governance at local and national levels.