This Policy Brief focuses on the vital role of biodiversity for human life and the importance of integrating biodiversity considerations into the recovery from the COVID-19 crisis. The Brief first outlines how biodiversity loss is a key driver of emerging infectious diseases and poses a variety of other growing risks to businesses, society and the global economy. Investing in the conservation, sustainable use and restoration of biodiversity can help to address these risks, while providing jobs, business opportunities and other benefits to society.

States of Fragility 2020 finds that progress on several UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) – including the crucial Goal 16 relating to peace, justice and strong institutions – has stagnated or declined in fragile locations in recent years. The coronavirus crisis is hurting incomes and stability in already poor and vulnerable countries, as well as health and education – two key building blocks of sustainable development in fragile states.

If the threat from COVID-19 fades more quickly than expected, improved business and consumer confidence could boost global activity sharply in 2021. But a stronger resurgence of the virus, or more stringent lockdowns could cut 2-3 percentage points from global growth in 2021, with even higher unemployment and a prolonged period of weak investment.

Presenting the Interim Economic Outlook, covering G20 economies, OECD Chief Economist Laurence Boone said: “The world is facing an acute health crisis and the most dramatic economic slowdown since the Second World War. The end is not yet in sight but there is still much policymakers can do to help build confidence.”

Many countries are making “green” recovery measures a central part of stimulus packages to drive sustainable, inclusive, resilient economic growth and improve well-being in the wake of the COVID-19 crisis. However some countries are also implementing measures that risk having a negative environmental impact and locking in unsustainable growth, according to new OECD analysis discussed by member country ministers today. New OECD analysis, Making the Green Recovery Work for Jobs, Income and Growth, indicates that OECD member governments have committed USD 312 billion of public resources to a green recovery, according to a preliminary estimate that will be refined in the coming months. However, a number of other measures within broader recovery packages are going into “non-green” spending such as fossil fuel investments.

The COVID-19 pandemic has challenged clinicians, public health authorities, companies and governments to quickly develop new capabilities for supporting recovery, maintaining health security, and building resilience. Digital tools and strategies have become crucial in this effort.
This document is an update of the Early Compendium of Technology Responses to COVID-19 published in April 2020. It more than triples the number of solutions, providing better visibility into the diverse uses of technology for the COVID-19 response.

Alicia Bárcena explained that ECLAC is proposing five, very concrete recommendations: a debt relief initiative through a debt for climate change adaptation swap, which includes the creation of a resilience fund; a debt service standstill and a change in international financial institutions’ (IFIs) eligibility criteria for granting concessional funding; stage contingency bonds, especially with hurricane clauses; green and blue bonds; and liquidity support via the issuance of Special Drawing Rights (SDRs).

En el contexto actual, el yoga apoya el estado físico de las personas que, en general, se mueven menos por la limitación de las actividades fuera de casa y, sobre todo sirve como instrumento para mantener un equilibrio mental.

As the global outbreak of COVID-19 has upended lives across the world, a rise in conditions including depression and anxiety have been seen as people adapt to lifestyle changes.

“During my missions and the ongoing confinement, yoga has really helped me to stay calm, balanced and focused,” said Silke Von Brockhausen, who is currently based in New York at the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and has a career in helping the UN respond to global emergencies.

Massive losses in working hours, equivalent to 305 million full-time jobs, are predicted for the second quarter of 2020, while 38 percent of the workforce – some 1.25 billion workers – is employed in high-risk sectors.

The Policy Brief, which is based on data and analysis from the International Labour Organization (ILO), warns that many of those people who have lost their jobs and livelihoods in recent months will not be able to re-enter labour markets any time soon.

The COVID-19 pandemic has triggered the most severe recession in nearly a century and is causing enormous damage to people’s health, jobs and well-being, according to the OECD’s latest Economic Outlook.

As restrictions begin to ease, the path to economic recovery remains highly uncertain and vulnerable to a second wave of infections. Strengthening healthcare systems and supporting people and businesses to help adapt to a post-COVID-19 world will be crucial, it says.

During a videoconference, representatives of financial institutions, development organizations and donors informed the ministers of funding alternatives and resources available to strengthen agriculture, with special emphasis on food security, resilience, economic recovery, technological innovation, sustainable use of resources and the preservation of biodiversity, among other areas.

The meeting was organized by the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) and the Secretariat of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), as part of their efforts to strengthen agriculture in the region. 

According to Dr. Damour, a lot will depend on the age of your child. “Very young children may be confused about what happened – both with loss and grief. Children under the age of 5 may not understand why they don’t go to school and why their parents are home. In the case of death, they may not really understand what death is or understand that it’s permanent. We need to appreciate that really young children are not only dealing with dramatic changes in their lives, but that they often don’t entirely understand why these changes have occurred or what caused them.”

Cooperation among countries of the South cannot substitute for the actions required by the wider international community but it can bring a degree of relief and support with recovery.

As important, it can provide a blueprint for the kind of international coordination and cooperation that will be needed to recover better than after previous crises.

With this in mind, a South-South cooperation agenda needs to build around three broad objectives: scaling-up financial resources; enhancing policy space; and building resilience.

To achieve a better outcome, the world must act jointly and swiftly to revamp all aspects of our societies and economies, from education to social contracts and working conditions. Every country, from the United States to China, must participate, and every industry, from oil and gas to tech, must be transformed. In short, we need a “Great Reset” of capitalism.

Short-term response measures to address the health emergency and secure core public services will need to be accompanied by comprehensive policies to boost long-term growth, including by improving governance and business environments, and expanding and improving the results of investment in education and public health. To make future economies more resilient, many countries will need systems that can build and retain more human and physical capital during the recovery – using policies that reflect and encourage the post-pandemic need for new types of jobs, businesses and governance systems.

This report presents a set of policies to mitigate the impacts and groups them in three overlapping phases: Coping, Managing Continuity, and Improving and Accelerating. The guiding principle are to use every opportunity, in each phase, to do things better. This includes the provision of incentives, such as school feeding and school health programmes, to maximize reenrolment and attendance as schools reopen. By learning from innovations and emergency processes, systems can adapt and scale up the more effective solutions. In doing so, they could become more effective, more agile, and more resilient. A vision and proactive action will help not only mitigate the damage from the current crisis, but could turn recovery into real growth.

The project launched this month will implement UN solutions, standards, guidelines, metrics, tools and methodologies to help developing countries build transport, trade and logistics resilience in the wake of COVID-19.

It seeks to equip governments in developing and least developed countries to adapt to new post-COVID-19 conditions by tapping into UN expertise, standards, tools and guidance, while considering their specific and local conditions.

Over the past three months, the World Bank Group has mounted the fastest crisis response in its history. We are now financing emergency operations in over 100 countries – home to 70% of the global population.

In this virtual interview, David Malpass, President of the World Bank Group, discussed the path ahead for developing countries. What will a robust and resilient recovery look like? How can we promote economic growth, support the poorest, and sustain businesses and jobs?

The COVID-19 pandemic is intensifying inequalities experienced by the world’s one billion people with disabilities, UN Secretary-General António Guterres said in launching a report issued on Wednesday that calls for a disability-inclusive recovery and response to the crisis.

Hace pocos años, la Unión Europea situó el concepto de “resiliencia” en el centro de su estrategia global y de seguridad. En un mundo más complejo, disputado e interconectado, se asumía que la seguridad y el bienestar enfrentaba nuevos desafíos geopolíticos y los riesgos transnacionales de la globalización. Ello exigía fortalecer la capacidad de cada país para encajar y sobreponerse a un choque externo. Ese era un objetivo de nuestra cooperación con los países en desarrollo, menos resilientes, pero también interpelaba a una UE que se sabía vulnerable ante esos riesgos.