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.

El Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo (BID) aprobó una asistencia no reembolsable de US$60 millones para apoyar a los sectores más vulnerables de Haití frente a la crisis causada por la COVID-19.

La ayuda será administrada por el Fondo de Asistencia Económica y Social (FAES), un organismo autónomo dependiente del Ministerio de Finanzas, que se encarga de implementar los programas de asistencia social en Haití, donde 59 por ciento de la población vive bajo la línea de pobreza.

A $76.2 million loan from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) will help finance efforts to contain the pandemic, mitigate its effect on poor households, and promote counter-cyclical policies that will ease the crisis' short-term effect on the economy.

Broader structural challenges must be addressed to build back better and transform the region’s development model.

Against the backdrop of pervasive inequality, accessible and comprehensive welfare systems must be developed, fair taxation systems created, decent jobs promoted, environmental sustainability strengthened, and social protection mechanisms reinforced, according to the UN chief. Moreover, regional economic integration is required, with “women participating fully and safely in public and economic life”, he stressed.

The report – Extreme Outlier: The Pandemic’s Unprecedented Shock to Tourism in Latin America and the Caribbean – launches a new global Tourism Dependency Index for countries, including 35 Latin American and Caribbean economies. It urges governments to take unprecedented measures to prevent the spread of the virus, and to support citizens and economies through this shock to the most tourism-dependent region in the world. 

PAHO’s director Carissa Etienne said countries must adjust and coordinate their COVID-19 response based on increasingly detailed data. “Governments will have to make decisions, considering simultaneously health, economic, and social indicators. This will allow health officials to understand where transmission is accelerating, and which groups are at greater risk so as to better target their efforts,” she added.

The Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) and the Central American Program for Integrated Coffee Rust Management (PROCAGICA) collaborated to distribute seeds and inputs to coffee farmers in several districts in Nicaragua, as part of strategic actions to assist in reducing rural vulnerability triggered by Covid-19.

The objective is to reduce vulnerability in two ways: by supporting the production of food with short cycle crops and offering farmers the opportunity to earn income by selling crop surpluses.

MSMEs are a key component of Uruguay’s production and employment capabilities, accounting for more than 99 percent of the private sector companies and more than 67 percent of the jobs. Their activities are mostly concentrated on services and commerce – two sectors badly affected by the coronavirus crisis.

The budget-support loan will provide Panama’s government with rapid disbursement funds to finance emergency current expenses and generate a mid-term fiscal policy strategic framework to recover fiscal sustainability and ensure macroeconomic stability.

Representatives from multilateral organizations were convened to a meeting of the Summit Working Group of the Organization of American States (OAS), in which they analyzed the main repercussions of the global health crisis on the agrifood chain and the measures applied by countries to bridge the ever increasing gaps.

Addressing the virtual meeting, the Director General of the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA), Manuel Otero, spoke about the impact of Covid-19 on food security, value chains and intraregional trade.

The project includes the adoption of public policies that promote innovation, entrepreneurship and business productivity, all of which are considered essential to help the country recuperate from the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.

A total of 18 countries interrupted services partially and two closed them completely, according to a PAHO survey. Countries have been urged to implement innovative and strategies and measures to ensure safe care during the pandemic.

“The opinions, knowledge and experience of youth must be taken into account. We must participate in the development of strategies and ensure that any policies implemented are well-targeted, based on our knowledge of limitations and opportunities within the sector, as well as our vision for agriculture”, stated Andrea Paredes, a Guatemalan coffee farmer and the representative for Central America in the forum.

“La innovación digital trae muchas ventajas para luchar contra el COVID-19 y facilitar el distanciamiento social, pero también involucra algunos riesgos. El surgimiento de la pandemia ha puesto de manifiesto problemas estructurales en los ámbitos económico y social, a los que se suman la exclusión digital, y otros problemas relacionados con la privacidad y seguridad”, aseguró Alicia Bárcena.

Un nuevo informe de dos agencias de las Naciones Unidas propone un “bono contra el Hambre” además de un ingreso mínimo de emergencia para evitar que la crisis sanitari del COVID-19 se convierta en una crisis alimentaria que haga retroceder a la región 20 años de desarrollo y empuje a millones más al hambre y la pobreza..

“While the majority of infections in the region are reported in big cities, where economic inequality and population density fuel transmission, our data show a concerning trend towards high transmission in border areas.” Carissa Etienne said.

The study by the UN’s office for the region, known by the acronym ECLAC, and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), proposes 10 measures to ward against increased hunger, including through an “anti-hunger grant” to support vulnerable people as well as food producers.

El Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo (BID) aprobó una operación para Costa Rica por valor de US$265 millones, que busca asegurar los niveles mínimos de ingreso y de empleo para la población más vulnerable del país -en el período inmediato y durante la recuperación económica- frente a la crisis causada por el COVID-19.

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.