In the face of the COVID-19 crisis, the urges policymakers to use the opportunity to make fundamental changes to protect the most vulnerable when future shocks inevitably occur.
Economic Development
’s focus on inequality and poverty makes them uniquely positioned to help countries to prepare, respond, and fully recover from the pandemic. UNDP conducts quick assessments of the social and economic blowback from COVID-19, so governments can ensure urgent recovery measures and longer-term social protection, especially for the disadvantaged and marginalized. The US$30 million Rapid Response Facility provides funds within 72 hours, and more than 83 countries have benefitted.
Our solutions are in nature
The is committed to help countries respond to the health emergency, contain economic damage, and start planning for long-term recovery. We have set up fast-track financing for COVID-19 response efforts and have these underway already in over 60 client countries. Through a combination of new projects, restructuring and emergency components of existing projects, and deployment of our disaster finance instruments, we expect our COVID-19 work to reach 100 countries.
Several countries in Asia and Europe, where the COVID-19 outbreak appears to have peaked, are gradually reopening their economies. Without a vaccine or effective treatment, policymakers will be balancing the benefits of resuming economic activity against the potential cost of another increase in infection rates. They face difficult choices, in part, because the costs of erring in either direction could be very large. Given this, authorities are adopting a gradual and sequenced approach to reopening, along with the adoption of further prevention and containment measures.
Families bear the brunt of the COVID-19 pandemic, sheltering their members from harm, caring for out-of-school children and, at the same time, continuing their work responsibilities. The International Day of Families, observed on 15 May each year, provides an opportunity to raise awareness of the social, economic and demographic processes affecting families. This year’s observance, which focuses on Families in Development: Copenhagen & Beijing+25 brings into sharp focus the importance of investing in social policies protecting the most vulnerable individuals and families.
As the coronavirus pandemic has halted the travel industry, the United Nations works to cushion the economic impact of COVID-19 on small island developing States, which continue reeling from climate-related challenges. The sudden downturn in travel has left island economies heavily reliant on foreign visitors very worried about their finances. , among other UN entities, supports the government responses in Vanuatu, Fiji and Solomon Islands to reach children most in need, while facing the additional demands of the ongoing preparedness and response efforts for COVID-19.
The economic effects of suspending almost all activity have immediately impacted the world’s commodity markets and are likely to continue to affect them for months to come as countries contend with the health emergency of the COVID-19 pandemic. The warns the pandemic has the potential to lead to permanent changes in the demand and supply of commodities, and especially to the supply chains that move those commodities from producers to consumers.
COVID-19 presents a development and a health crisis. ’s network of Accelerator Labs works with its partners to prepare, respond and recover, to the new world we live in.
Learn about the definition of and explore how different countries are taking on the critical role of investing in education, health, and resilience.
The economic consequences of the pandemic are already impacting the United States with unprecedented speed and severity. In the last two weeks in March almost 10 million people applied for unemployment benefits. Such a sharp increase has never been seen before, not even at the peak of the crisis 2009 crisis. Disruptions caused by the virus are starting to ripple through emerging markets. To overcome this pandemic, we need a global, coordinated health and economic policy effort.
UNDP makes a call to action to the international community to think beyond the immediate impact of COVID-19. Income losses are expected to exceed $220 billion in developing countries. With an estimated 55 per cent of the global population having no access to social protection, these losses will reverberate across societies, impacting education, human rights and basic food security and nutrition. Working in close coordination with the , is helping countries to prepare for, respond to and recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, focusing particularly on the most vulnerable.
How to Minimize the Impact of Coronavirus on Food Security
The spread of the coronavirus is first and foremost a public health emergency, but it’s also a significant economic threat. The COVID-19 shock will cause a recession in some countries and depress global annual growth this year to below 2.5%, the recessionary threshold for the world economy. Even if the worst is avoided, the hit to global income, compared with what forecasters had been projecting for 2020, will be capped at around the trillion-dollar mark. But could it be worse? UNCTAD published on 9 March that suggests why this may be the case.
Decades of instability have caused untold suffering for people across the Central African Republic. One of the worst humanitarian crises in the world, more than one million people remain displaced and over half of the country’s five million population requires humanitarian assistance. The small landlocked country has been ravaged by conflict and civil war, which has resulted in countless deaths and forced displacements, and has prevented the country from developing. As part of efforts to alleviate people’s hardship, is working with the government and the to deliver a multifaceted project that is helping to lay the foundations for peace and improve living conditions for displaced communities.