Varying impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the labour markets of developed countries
The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting severe restrictions on economic and social activities had a profoundly disruptive impact on labour markets in virtually every part of the world, including in the OECD countries?the group mostly characterised by high-income, industrially-advanced and diversified economies, which includes, among others, the United States, CANZ group of countries, most of the European Union (EU) and Japan. The aggregate OECD unemployment rate stood at 5.2 per cent in February 2020, as several OECD member states entered 2020 with historically low unemployment figures, but…
World Economic Situation And Prospects: August 2020 Briefing, No. 140
Over the past months, COVID-19 has inflicted catastrophic damage on societies and economies, and exposed weaknesses in health systems worldwide. While the pandemic continues to unfold across the globe and infections are yet to reach a peak in certain regions, some countries are gradually starting to prepare for the easing of social and economic restrictions, and to plan for recovery. Amidst deliberations on priority areas for rebuilding, much attention has been paid to the need to strengthen domestic health care, and such proposals will certainly be high on the agenda for many Governments. The crisis, however, has also shone a spotlight on the shortcomings of the global health system. A…
UN/DESA Policy Brief #83: Recovering from COVID-19: the importance of investing in global public goods for health
Introduction
Social protection systems play a key role in preventing hardship when people face adverse circumstances. Many countries around the world have some social protection programmes in place. In 2017, 45 per cent of the global population were covered by at least one social protection programme (ILO, 2017). However, COVID-19 is testing the limits of these systems. Unprecedented numbers of people are suddenly facing unemployment, disease, poverty and hunger. This brief explores how social protection systems can be made to be more responsive to acute shocks and enable countries to recover better. Well-designed systems should be both resilient enough to withstand the shock and flexible…
UN/DESA Policy Brief #82: COVID-19 and a primer on shock-responsive social protection systems
CDP Background Paper No. 50
By CDP Subgroup on voluntary national reviews
Voluntary national reviews (VNRs) are an important innovation as a United Nations process for follow up to the adoption of development agendas. This is the third annual review by the Committee for Development Policy (CDP) that provides a systematic content analysis of the VNRs presented to the HLPF. It includes a broader analysis than in the previous years, including a stock taking of lessons learned in the CDP analyses as well as related studies and makes recommendations for strengthening the VNR process. The paper also analyses the VNRs presented in 2019 with regard to how countries addressed the key principle of…
Voluntary National Reviews Reports: What do they (not) reveal?
The global COVID-19 pandemic is plunging the world into a socio-economic and financial crisis of an unprecedented scale, in addition to the acute health crisis. Many of the gains achieved under the banner of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are under threat. The crisis has exposed and exacerbated vulnerabilities and inequalities in both developing and developed countries, deepening poverty and exclusion and pushing the most vulnerable even further behind. This is a watershed moment. A sustainable, equitable and peaceful future hinges on the right national and international policy decisions. This policy note assembles analysis by members of the United Nations Committee for…
Development Policy and Multilateralism after COVID-19
COVID-19 has been a tragedy, killing more than half a million people and bringing the economy and life to a standstill in many parts of the world.It is directly impacting life and health, with more than ten million confirmed cases.The various containment measures are affecting hundreds of millions of people and their livelihoods.The aggregate effect at the national and global levels will persist for a long time.
COVID-19 has slowed economic growth, increased unemployment, and raised poverty and hunger.The global output is estimated to shrink by 5.2 per cent in 2020, with a downside estimate of about 8 per cent contraction should the lockdowns continue into the second half of the year.?The…
Sustainable Development Outlook 2020: Achieving SDGs in the wake of COVID-19: Scenarios for policymakers
Diverging inflation rates suggest new risks
Global inflation trends
While an increasing number of countries are reopening their economies during the COVID-19 pandemic, the prospects of the world economy remain highly uncertain. One of the many uncertainties that the world economy is facing is the prospect of consumer prices.
Before the COVID-19 pandemic hit the world economy, the global average trend pointed to a historically low level of consumer inflation (figure 1). The converging unweighted and GDP-weighted world average inflation rates implies the trend was observed not only in high-income countries. Several factors contributed to this trend. First, the supply capacity for consumers…
World Economic Situation And Prospects: July 2020 Briefing, No. 139
The COVID-19 pandemic has brought to the forefront some of the most pressing global challenges that humanity has faced in recent history. Health systems have been stretched thin and lockdown measures have taken a heavy social and economic toll, the devastating impacts of which are being felt by all ? from urban residents of densely populated megacities to indigenous peoples living deep in the heart of forests.
As countries respond to this global crisis, the focus is on strengthening health systems, cushioning the knockon effects on livelihoods and economies and building back better (UN, 2020a). At the same time, it is becoming increasingly clear that the path ahead represents a oncein- a-…
UN/DESA Policy Brief #80: Forests at the heart of a green recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic
Introduction
The SDG Summit in September 2019 was marked by renewed commitment from world leaders to accelerate progress towards the SDGs. Scientific assessments such as those in the Global Sustainable Development Report identified strategic entry points through which targeted efforts, for example to build sustainable food systems, invest in human well-being or protect the global environmental commons, could lead to positive outcomes that would cascade across many of the SDGs. Although the way ahead appeared steep, stakeholders were energized by the launch of the Decade of Action. Then, only months later, the COVID-19 pandemic unleashed a tsunami of human suffering with far reaching…
UN/DESA Policy Brief #78: Achieving the SDGs through the COVID-19 response and recovery
The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has affected over 180 countries, infected more than 6.5 million people and killed more than 383,000 (as of 3 June 2020). In addition to the health implications and loss of life, the pandemic has strained health care systems, disrupted the education system, wreaked havoc on businesses and economies, led to job losses and disrupted social life with lockdowns, curfews and other stringent measures aimed at containing the virus being implemented globally. All this has happened in the context of implementing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, where the Public Service and Public Servants are critical.
The following are identified as the roles public…
UN/DESA Policy Brief #79: The role of public service and public servants during the COVID-19 pandemic
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