IOM is able to provide vital assistance to these vulnerable returnees with support from the EU-IOM Joint Initiative for Migrant Protection and Reintegration financed by the European Union, in the framework of the Migrant Resource and Response Mechanism supported by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands, the United States Department of State, and the Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs of France.

Dr. Mossi explained that, "This is the first part of a US$300 million financing, which will allow the country's entrepreneurs to face the difficult moments resulting from the coronavirus pandemic. In addition, it is a tool with which MSMEs can solve financial problems, avoiding personnel layoffs, while maintaining operations."

In essence, the banking union is an exercise in risk diversification, achieved by pooling banking risks and regulatory controls among euro area countries. The strategy involved three interrelated lines of action: strengthening the solvency of banks; enhancing their efficiency; and fostering area-wide diversification and integration of the banking industry.

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.

As countries continue to scale up and adjust eligibility criteria of current support measures, there are concerns about how to reach those SMEs that have missed the boat and ensure the support actually goes to the businesses that need it the most. Concerning loans, the big elephant in the room remains how to manage future SME debt, not only to avoid the pre-mature closure of viable SMEs, but also since a further deterioration of SMEs’ financial situation could have systemic effects on the banking sectors as a whole. Although some countries have pledged unlimited support, it seems difficult to maintain the breadth of current support much longer without compromising the sustainability of public debt.

The pandemic has hit Saint Vincent and the Grenadines hard. Tourism receipts have dried up, as tourism arrivals have come to a complete halt. The economy is now projected to contract by 5.5 percent —7.8 percentage points below pre-COVID-19 projections. A drop in fiscal revenues, combined with additional direct health and social expenditures, will increase the fiscal deficit and financing needs. IMF support will help cover some of these needs and allow the government to ease the impact on the population.

FAPES (Research Foundation of the State of Espírito Santo) has launched a research call for projects to tackle or mitigate the damage caused by COVID-19. The proposals should aim at developing diagnostics tests, therapies ventilators, digital technologies, vaccines, medicaments, as well as social and economic development, among other areas.

En este blog mantendremos registro de la evolución de los tipos de cambio y sus efectos sobre el sector agroalimentario. 

“Hemos analizado el avance de 72 series estadísticas de los indicadores de los 17 ODS para la región: 4 alcanzaron la meta; 15 van en la tendencia correcta; 8 necesitan más intervención de políticas públicas; 13 requieren una fuerte intervención de políticas públicas; 27 están estancadas y 5 en retroceso”, afirmó hoy Alicia Bárcena, Secretaria Ejecutiva de la Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL).

Agregó que la pandemia del COVID-19 visibilizó los problemas estructurales del modelo económico y las carencias del sistema de protección social y brechas del régimen de bienestar, confirmando la necesidad de repensar el desarrollo y formular respuestas para un mundo post COVID.

“La crisis es el accidente más la desestabilización. Combina el desencadenamiento de dificultades, el desorden en el funcionamiento de las organizaciones y divergencias en cuanto a las opciones fundamentales. Con la crisis, la cuestión de la información del público se vuelve central. No se trata solamente de aplicar soluciones listas para ser empleada en problemas definidos. Será preciso legitimar la propia acción, mantener la credibilidad, hacer gala de eficacia en la ayuda a la población.”

The COVID-19 lockdown in the U.S. began at a time of relatively mild weather and very few natural disasters, so for the past few months, the country has been able to focus mainly on the pandemic. But this week, two dams in Michigan failed after heavy rains and flooding, forcing 11,000 people to evacuate while trying to social distance. The floodwaters also threatened the Dow Chemical plant and two hazardous Superfund waste sites, which could have precipitated an environmental disaster. In India and Bangladesh, the most powerful cyclone in more than a decade forced over three million people to evacuate as relief teams tried to protect them against infection from COVID-19.

Investment in transforming the transport sector could create millions of new jobs and help countries move to greener, healthier economies, says report from the International Labour Organization and the UN Economic Commission for Europe.

The study finds that 10 million additional jobs could be created worldwide - 2.9 million in the UNECE region - if 50 per cent of all vehicles manufactured were electric. In addition, almost 5 million new jobs could be created worldwide - 2.5 million in the UNECE region - if UNECE countries doubled investment in public transport.

While the pandemic arrived after it had already devastated Europe (and now the United States), everybody in the human rights field knew that health and social services in Latin America had been dismantled progressively, mostly via privatisation and the shrinking of public programmes and spending. Hence the pandemic will affect principally the vulnerable people who can’t access basic public services.

While a global pandemic has been a looming risk for decades, COVID-19 has come as a shock to society, health systems, economies and governments worldwide. In the midst of extraordinary challenges and uncertainty, and countless personal tragedies, leaders are under pressure to make decisions on managing the immediate impact of the pandemic and its consequences, decisions that will shape the state of the world for years to come. What might be the silver linings in the crisis and how might leaders use this moment to build a more prosperous, equitable and sustainable world?

La crisis del COVID-19 plantea el desafío de asegurar que los gobiernos atiendan las necesidades de la emergencia con eficiencia, transparencia e integridad. Los desastres naturales, las crisis humanitarias o epidemias generan la necesidad de desembolsar recursos de forma extremadamente rápida. En este contexto, hay mayores riesgos de que los recursos públicos sean utilizados indebidamente.

The United Nations and other partner organizations of the CCSA make a wealth of impartial data and statistics available free of charge with the spirit of promoting facts-based planning. This report presents a snapshot of some of the latest information available on how COVID-19 is affecting the world today. Although a wide range of topics are covered in this report, a consistency of message is clear – this is an unprecedented crisis, and no aspect of our lives is immune. The quantitative knowledge presented in this report covers different aspects of public and private life from economic and environmental fluctuations to changes that affect individuals in terms of income, education, employment and violence and changes affecting public services such as civil aviation and postal services. The report also puts a spotlight on the affects for some sub-population groups like women and children as well as geographical regions.

The agreement updates and expands an existing 1997 agreement between the two organizations. A key aim this year will be to support ongoing efforts to protect some 70 million forcibly displaced people from COVID-19. Around 26 million of these are refugees, 80 per cent of whom are sheltered in low and middle-income countries with weak health systems. Another 40 million internally displaced people also require assistance.

“Prior to Covid-19 technology gaps already existed in the region. Digital tools will be required to restore distribution channels – technologies that improve the efficiency of food production to make better use of agricultural products and surpluses, and others that ensure health, safety, quality and traceability”, said Murano, who is currently the director of the Norman E. Borlaug Institute for International Agricultural of Texas A&M University.

More broadly, international organizations were called on to work collaboratively to develop, test and scale-up production of safe, effective, quality, affordable diagnostics, therapeutics, medicines and vaccines for the COVID-19 response – including in the licensing of patents to facilitate access to them.

With school closures, UNDP estimates of the “effective out-of-school rate”—the percentage of primary school-age children, adjusted to reflect those without Internet access—indicate that 60 per cent of children are not getting an education, leading to global levels not seen since the 1980s. The combined impact of these shocks could signify the largest reversal in human development on record.

This is not counting other significant effects, for instance, in the progress towards gender equality. The negative impacts on women and girls span economic - earning and saving less and greater job insecurity -, reproductive health, unpaid care work and gender-based violence.