This tool enables users to view the actions carried out by the UNDP in order to support each member state of the region in their fight against the COVID-19 crisis.

This extraordinary global situation demands a global response. As an answer, the United Nations Development Programme and Hackster.io are joining forces with the world’s brightest technology companies. We are calling on hardware and software developers, product designers, scientists, hackers, makers, and innovators to come together to work for those who will be hardest hit by this pandemic. 

Whether it’s climate change, plummeting biodiversity rates, or unchecked consumption and waste, we already face unprecedented planetary challenges.
Now, the coronavirus COVID-19 has added an extra, deadly layer of complexity to the paths we must forge.
And we have a very limited time left in which to make the big changes that will create a sustainable and just future.
Now more than ever, there are no one-size-fits-all answers; new ways of thinking are needed.

Women are hardest hit by the current COVID-19 pandemic and its impacts. Beyond the direct effect of the infection by the coronavirus, women’s health and safety are at greater risk as increased prevalence of domestic violence and abuse is reported and sexual and reproductive health services are reduced. In this time of unprecedented crisis, women also face an increased burden of care and subsequent risk of getting sick because they represent the majority of front-line healthcare workers and caregivers in homes and communities globally. This is all in addition to the disproportionate indirect impact of the pandemic on women’s livelihoods everywhere. With the majority of women working in the informal economy, they often lack health insurance and social security, putting them further at risk. 

The report Temporary Basic Income: Protecting Poor and Vulnerable People in Developing Countries estimates that it would cost from $199 billion per month to provide a time-bound, guaranteed basic income to the 2.7 billion people living below or just above the poverty line in 132 developing countries.

The report concludes that the measure is feasible and urgently needed, with the pandemic now spreading at a rate of more than 1.5 million new cases per week, particularly in developing countries, where seven out of ten workers make a living through informal markets and cannot earn money if they are at home.

“Laws and policies that are grounded in science, evidence and human rights can enable people to access health services, protect themselves from COVID-19 and live free from stigma, discrimination and violence,” says Achim Steiner, UNDP Administrator. “The COVID-19 Law Lab is an important tool for sharing good practices on laws and policies.”

While data is not yet available to measure the rise of global multidimensional poverty after the pandemic, simulations for 70 countries in the developing world, based on the anticipated impacts of the virus on just two components of the global MPI – nutrition and school attendance – suggests how much impact the crisis could have unless it is addressed.

In the current state of emergency, governments should prioritize transparent public information campaigns, plan strategies that involve marginalized groups in urban areas and indigenous communities, guarantee access to clean water, soap, food, income, and other essential items, ensure internet connectivity, use spaces other than hospitals to isolate COVID-19 patients, and design strategies to safely move patients among medical facilities.

Emphasizing on the urgency of obligations to respect human rights and the rule of law in the current context around COVID-19 pandemic, UNDP Administrator Achim Steiner stated- “It is clear that securing the rule of law and human rights is key to achieving the transformational change we need - based on principles of trust, accountability and justice. This ultimately means forging a new, more inclusive social contract.”

“It makes no sense to think of people - and development - as somehow separate from the planet. We are embedded in nature. Neglecting this not only threatens future generations with catastrophic risks but is already blighting the lives of many today,” says Pedro Conceição, Director of the Human Development Report Office at UNDP.

By standing with their people to build a trusted relationship, national governments can mitigate the worst threats of misinformation, and in turn more loss of lives and livelihoods.

Advice about COVID-19 changes swiftly as medical understanding evolves, and this rapid evolution and the crippling impact on lives and livelihoods have led to a public thirst for information. Social media, informal news sources and fringe journalism have filled the void, often sowing fear, stigmatization, discrimination and confusion.

“The hardship of COVID-19 felt by migrants in the form of lost wages and employment – often without government safety nets – is a large part of this crisis in remittances. The decline also results from a host of issues caused by the coronavirus that impact the services migrants use to send money home – including the restrictions placed on remittance services providers and their agents. The loss of this crucial financing lifeline is devastating for both the migrant households and receiving countries,” said Judith Karl, Executive Secretary for UNCDF. “UNCDF, together with UNDP, is committed to supporting the Member State-led call to action and to ensuring that every measure is available to facilitate migrants in sending remittances home.”

Guidance from UNDP, Gender-based violence and COVID-19, also recommends developing new protocols to provide support via phone or online platforms rather than in person, expanding immediate response services in order to save lives, and most ensuring that steps to prevent gender-based violence are in every COVID-19 response plan and budget.

This webinar falls under the cooperation initiatives being pursued by the Summits of the Americas Secretariat within the framework of implementation of the Mechanism for Follow-up and Implementation of the Lima Commitment, with the participating states, Joint Summit Working Group (JSWG) entities, and civil society and social actors.

Curtailed access to justice institutions, rising intimate partner violence, growing injustice for women workers – including those on the frontlines of the crisis –, and discriminatory laws are some of the major risks to women’s lives and livelihoods associated with COVID-19. Estimates suggest that roughly 2.73 billion women around the world live in countries where stay-at-home orders are in place, which sharply heightens the risk of intimate partner violence.

With economies stumbling and unemployment soaring, UN ramps up plans for social and economic recovery alongside WHO-led health response.

UN Global Humanitarian Response Plan

Heart17 collaboration brings companies together with the United Nations to share life-saving information

In an article by the United Nations Development Programme, UNDP, the situation is analyzed on the assumption that the coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic has unleashed disruption and devastation around the globe, bringing into sharp focus our global connectedness and the interdependencies between economic, social and environmental outcomes. Economies have slowed to a trickle; daily routines are suspended; enterprises are in hibernation; millions of people are unemployed; and more than a hundred thousand lives have been lost. As is often the case, the most disadvantaged are expected to be the most affected. The UNDP points out that this international health crisis is only the latest in a series of events to expose how vulnerable poor and marginalized communities are and how fragile our planet’s ecosystem is.

UNDP and Hackster, the largest online open-source hardware community, have mobilized some of the biggest names in the technology world, with support from Amazon Web Services, Arduino, Arm, Avnet, Edge Impulse, Google, Microsoft, NVIDIA, NVP, Nordic Semiconductor, Soracom, and The Things Industries. In partnership, we are launching the COVID-19 Detect & Protect Challenge.