The principal regulations are amended by repealing regulation 4 and replacing it with the following

Existing global estimates indicate that 152 million children are being put to work, but the figure is due to be updated next year, once the wider impact of coronavirus lockdown precautions become clearer.

“As the pandemic wreaks havoc on family incomes, without support, many could resort to child labour”, said Guy Ryder, Director-General of the International Labour Organization (ILO), marking the World Day Against Child Labour.

The Peace Operations chief, Jean-Pierre Lacroix, stressed the importance of continuing to prioritize the UN’s Action for Peacekeeping’s (A4P) Women, Peace and Security (WPS) commitments during the pandemic. The missions’ close relationships with women’s organizations have allowed them to “quickly and creatively continue to work” through UN assets – such as via radio, phone links and community alert systems – as well as by leveraging women-led structures, including women protection networks, early warning networks and gender working groups.

Regulations made by the Governor-General in exercise of the powers conferred upon him by section 18(9) of the Belize Constitution, Chapter 4 of the Substantive Laws of Belize, Revised Edition 2011, and all other powers thereunto him enabling

The pandemic has overwhelmed health systems in many parts of the world, which means women may be at greater risk of dying from complications related to pregnancy and childbirth.

Early evidence also suggests that people in their teens and 20s are at increased risk of depression and anxiety, online harassment, physical and sexual violence and unintended pregnancies.

In a message for World Blood Donor Day celebrated every June 14, the PAHO Director Carissa F. Etienne said, “The safest blood comes through voluntary unpaid donation from people like you and me. Donation is an act of solidarity and altruism, which the world needs now more than ever in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.”

“On World Blood Donor Day, I want to offer my deepest thanks to blood donors throughout the Region of the Americas for giving the gift of life,” Etienne said.

Digi/Gob is an ad-hoc platform that can be rapidly customized to a country’s specific needs within 2-3 weeks to provide a digital government solution. It has been developed by everis in the Microsoft cloud as a means of enabling the electronic processing of public transactions and facilitating the continuity of operations during this drastic interruption of in-person interactions. A key aspect of this partnership is its use of the cloud to enhance effectiveness and accelerate digital transformation processes in the public sector.

The spread of COVID-19 among the elderly of Latin America and the Caribbean has exposed the fragility of the care and support systems for this group. The pandemic reveals a lack of protocols for action and prevention in home care and nursing home settings. It also brings to light the unmet support needs of family and informal caregivers. The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) study “Age with Care: Long-Term care in Latin America and the Caribbean” found that 8 million older people in the region (12% of people over 60 and 27% of people over 80) currently depend on some sort of long-term care. This means there is at least one basic activity of daily living—like bathing, eating, or getting out of bed—that they cannot do on their own.

According to FAO and ECLAC, given the sharp drop forecast in GDP, inflows and remittances, the increase in poverty, and the rise in food prices, it is vital to take urgent action to fight hunger in Latin American and Caribbean countries. The details of these measures, along with recommendations to avert a food crisis in the medium term, will be unveiled in this report.

In an unprecedented global health crisis, trade is essential to save lives and livelihoods; and international co-operation is needed to keep trade flowing. In the midst of significant uncertainty, there are four things we can do: 1)boost confidence in trade and global markets by improving transparency about trade-related policy actions and intentions; 2)keep supply chains flowing, especially for essentials such as health supplies and food; 3)avoid making things worse, through unnecessary export restrictions and other trade barriers; and 4)even in the midst of the crisis, think beyond the immediate. Government support today needs to be delivered in a way that ensures it serves the public interest, not vested interests, and avoids becoming tomorrow’s market distortions. OECD is working with other IOs to support governments through timely and objective evidence and analysis to inform policy choices

Some of Latin America’s most serious challenges—violent crime, drug trafficking, economic inequality and public corruption—all have one thing in common: money laundering. In Mexico alone, the government’s Financial Intelligence Unit reported that drug cartels and other illicit actors laundered an estimated $50 billion in 2019— crucial revenue for cartels that has also contributed to Mexico’s record-high homicide rate in recent years. Money laundering has helped Brazilian gangs like the Primeiro Comando da Capital, or First Capital Command, expand their criminal networks into neighboring Paraguay and Bolivia. In Venezuela, it has enabled a dramatic theft of public resources by officials tied to President Nicolas Maduro’s government, while the average Venezuelan has starved because of widespread food shortages.

COVID-19, and measures being taken by countries to control its spread, are impacting crime around the world, including migrant smuggling and human trafficking.

While some of the preventive measures have effectively hindered certain criminal opportunities in the short-term, smugglers and traffickers, as well as their victims, have sought and found ways to overcome them.

Migrant smuggling and human trafficking are particularly affected by geo-political and socio-economic factors which vary greatly by region and in the ways they drive vulnerable communities in those regions to migrate.

The collaboration will primarily support increased access to Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and other critical supplies to assist countries in their efforts to save lives and limit the human-to-human transmission of the COVID-19 diseases, focusing on populations experiencing marginalization or vulnerability including health care workers.

To cope with the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, international cooperation and multilateral financial assistance is needed. However, the liquidity available is not enough to meet financing needs on a global level. That is why subregional development banks in Latin America should take bolder measures, since they play a critical role in this area of work, Alicia Bárcena, ECLAC’s Executive Secretary, indicated today at a high-level event organized by CAF - Development Bank of Latin America in the context of its 50th anniversary.

“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.

Enhancing the involvement of Latin American and Caribbean rural youth in the political, economic and productive spheres, in efforts to rebuild in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, is the aim of a series of virtual forums, organized by the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA), beginning on June 12.

The forums will engage youth throughout the region, as part of IICA’s actions to assist in toppling barriers that are restricting this sector’s access to education, technology, employment, production resources, land ownerships and health services, to name a few.

“There is still a lot of uncertainty about the possibility of any economic recovery in the second half of the year,” says Pamela Coke-Hamilton, UNCTAD’s director of international trade.

“International trade is likely to remain below the levels observed in 2019,” she adds, “but how far depends on the pandemic’s evolution and the type and extent of the policies governments adopt as the try to restart their economies.”

El Premio Nobel de Economía Joseph Stiglitz explicó que una de las claves de los bancos de desarrollo es su perspectiva a largo plazo, teniendo en cuenta la disparidad entre el rendimiento social y privado, y que desempeñan un papel muy importante para responder a los desafíos del cambio climático y velar por el desarrollo sostenible. “Uno de los problemas para cerrar las brechas en infraestructura en América Latina es el acceso a recursos y CAF juega un rol estratégico para atraer recursos para este sector, acceso a la tecnología y capital humano especializado”, puntualizó.

Fund created to help fight the pandemic and support WHO and partners

La CEPAL propone dinamizar sectores claves para la infraestructura y la sostenibilidad de la vida. Uno de ellos es la economía del cuidado y otro, la potencialización de sectores bajos en emisiones de carbono, donde las mujeres debieran tener una participación muy activa, afirmó hoy Alicia Bárcena.

Durante su intervención, afirmó que, sin duda, la feminización de la pobreza es uno de los grandes temas de esta región. Y en estos tiempos de pandemia hay un impacto desproporcionado en las mujeres trabajadoras. Además, aseguró que en estos tiempos le preocupa que se vean mermados los presupuestos de las entidades de género.