La pandemia de COVID-19 y la crisis mundial que ha provocado han colocado a los países de renta baja al borde de la ruina. Si no se toman medidas urgentes, pronto veremos una serie de tragedias humanitarias brutales y destructivas, advirtió este jueves la ONU al solicitar a las economías del G20 fondos por 10.300 millones de dólares para financiar el Plan Global de Respuesta Humanitaria.

El coordinador de las Naciones Unidas para Asuntos Humanitarios, Mark Lowcock, explicó que el Plan contempla intervenciones de emergencia en 63 países que no cuentan con los medios para hacer frente a la pandemia y que su intención es beneficiar a 250 millones de personas.

“The pandemic and associated global recession are about to wreak havoc in fragile and low-income countries”, he said. “The response of wealthy nations so far has been grossly inadequate and dangerously short-sighted. Failure to act now will leave the virus free to circle round the globe, undo decades of development and create a generation’s worth of tragic and exportable problems.”

“It doesn’t have to be like this – this is a problem that can be fixed with money from wealthy nations and fresh thinking from the shareholders of international financial institutions and supporters of UN agencies, the Red Cross and Red Crescent movement, and NGOs,” UN’s top humanitarian official warned.

New analysis from the World Economic Forum shows that some of Latin America’s and the Caribbean’s tourism strengths are less important than before to a competitive tourism economy during COVID-19. The onset and spread of the COVID-19 pandemic has shifted the factors that make a country’s travel and tourism sector competitive. Certain factors, such as healthcare capacity and digital travel offerings, are increasing in importance during the pandemic. Other factors, like international openness – a primary strength of Latin America – are now less important.

In a joint statement, COICA and PAHO ask countries to “strengthen health care services in the Amazon through the provision of human resources, supplies and medical devices, including tests, as well as through treatments and vaccines when they are available. The statement places emphasis on those populations living in voluntary isolation.

COICA includes indigenous organizations from the Peruvian jungle, eastern Bolivia, the Ecuadorian Amazon, the Colombian Amazon, and the Brazilian Amazon.

El último Estudio económico de Costa Rica de la OCDE muestra que políticas públicas consistentes, incluyendo la apertura comercial y el uso sostenible de los recursos naturales, han permitido triplicar el PIB per cápita en tres décadas. Los niveles de vida son altos, con un acceso casi universal a la educación, la salud y las pensiones. Además, el impulso reformista ha sido sobresaliente en los últimos 18 meses, habiendo llevado a término numerosas iniciativas ligadas a la adhesión de Costa Rica a la OCDE. Sin embargo, los altos déficits públicos y el rápido incremento de la deuda pública ponen en riesgo estos logros, incluso sin las presiones añadidas derivadas de la crisis del coronavirus.

ECLAC’s Special Report COVID-19 No. 5, entitled Addressing the growing impact of COVID-19 with a view to reactivation with equality: new projections, indicates that since both external and domestic shocks have intensified, the region will experience a -9.1% fall in Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2020, with drops of -9.4% in South America, -8.4% in Central America and Mexico, and -7.9% in the Caribbean upon excluding Guyana, the strong growth of which prompts a smaller contraction in the subregional total (-5.4%).

This note discusses how SMEs are affected by the current COVID-19 pandemic, reports on early evidence and estimates about the impact, and provides an inventory of country responses to foster SME resilience. Given the rapid pace of developments, the overview of country responses is not comprehensive and in some cases includes intended policy responses that are still a work in progress, or simply at the stage of public announcements. This overview will be updated periodically

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.

“Productivity levels in emerging markets and developing economies remain less than 20 percent of the average in advanced economies, and only 2 percent in low income countries,” said World Bank Vice President for Equitable Growth, Finance and Institutions, Ceyla Pazarbasioglu. “A possible silver lining may be that changes in behavior from the pandemic will accelerate the adoption of new technologies, greater efficiencies among businesses, and the pace of scientific innovation. However, it is vital to ensure that these gains are widely distributed and that technology-driven labor market disruptions are well managed.”

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.

"What we do is a benefit to the community: migrants have suffered, like many of us, from this pandemic. With this support, we make sure they are not out in the street," said Leticia Chavarría Villa, a doctor who coordinates a six-person medical team in Ciudad Juárez. 

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.

The Platform for Collaboration on Tax (PCT) – a joint initiative of the IMF, OECD, UN and the World Bank – published today its Progress Report 2020, which gives a snapshot of the world’s four leading multilateral organizations’ cooperation in the area of domestic resource mobilization, including in their responses to COVID-19.

La Torre Este del Hospital Rafael Ángel Calderón Guardia ubicado San José Costa Rica, que es financiada por el Banco Centroamericano de Integración Económica (BCIE), será habilitada próximamente como centro de apoyo para la atención de pacientes COVID-19, reforzando la capacidad del sistema de salud del país el cual es liderado y coordinado por la Caja Costarricense de Seguro Social (CCSS).

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 latest OECD Economic Survey of the United States says that even as some businesses reopen with the lifting of coronavirus confinement measures, hard-hit sectors like hospitality and leisure will continue to need support, as will newly unemployed or displaced workers who may need to look for jobs in different sectors. The recent extension of the US Paycheck Protection Program by five weeks to August 8 is a welcome move to help small businesses struggling with the crisis. Extending exceptional unemployment benefits beyond the end-July cut-off date would offer a similar lifeline to the millions of households at risk of falling into poverty, as would assistance for job search (such as employment placement services) and support for geographic mobility.

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).

WHO Director-General today announced the initiation of the Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response (IPPR) to evaluate the world’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Operating independently, they will choose other Panel members as well as members of an independent secretariat to provide support.

A joint statement signed by more than a dozen countries that gives seafarers enhanced rights as key workers. The new measures, also supported by other UN agencies and international organizations, enable seafarers to be repatriated and move more freely during the pandemic.

As the world continues to combat COVID-19, UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, is calling on the German Presidency of the European Union (EU) to keep refugee protection high on the agenda. UNHCR is proposing concrete ways the EU can ensure a bold and robust response to forced displacement during the pandemic as well as long term. The envisaged EU Pact on Migration and Asylum also provides an opportunity for the EU to better protect forcibly displaced people in Europe and abroad, and support host countries.