The United Nations, on Monday, laid out a roadmap to lift economies and save jobs after the COVID-19 pandemic.
This new framework sets the way United Nations entities will deliver the vision on ground and will be rolled out under the leadership of UN Resident Coordinators, supported by a network of global and regional expertise.
The framework is tagged: “United Nations Framework for the immediate socio-economic response to COVID-19: Shared responsibility, global solidarity and urgent action for people in need.”
It calls for protecting jobs, businesses and livelihoods to set in motion a safe recovery of societies and economies for a more sustainable, gender-equal, and carbon-neutral path, better than the “old normal.”
António Guterres, UN Secretary-General, said in a statement, that the pandemic showed that, “we are all at risk, because we are only as strong as the weakest health system.
“This is not only a health crisis but a human crisis; a jobs crisis; a humanitarian crisis and a development crisis.
“And it is not just about the most vulnerable.
“Its unprecedented scale demands an unprecedented response.”
According to him, everything we do during and after the crisis must be with a strong focus on building more equal, inclusive and sustainable economies and societies.
He said the pandemic had created a historic recession with record levels of deprivation and unemployment, creating an unprecedented human crisis that was hitting the poorest hardest, especially women and children.
“The United Nations has called for an extraordinary scale-up of international support and political commitment to ensure that people everywhere have access to essential services and social protection,” he said.
The UN’s framework for social and economic recovery also stresses that decisions made in the next few months will be crucial for the progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
The UN said to prevent billions of people from sliding into poverty, governments around the world would need to rapidly adapt, extend and scale-up safety ‘cushions.’
These safety ‘cushions’ include cash transfers, food assistance, social insurance schemes and child benefits to support families.
For the impacts of COVID-19 to be reduced, the UN further called for an extraordinary scale-up of support to cope with the challenges ahead.
