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UN/DESA Policy Brief #101: Challenges and Opportunities for Indigenous Peoples’ Sustainability
Indigenous peoples contribute to mitigation and adaptation strategies including successful struggles against deforestation, mineral, oil and gas extraction in their ancestral lands; their fight against further expansion of monocrop plantations; their promotion of sustainable production and consumption systems through traditional knowledge and values of reciprocity with nature.
UN/DESA Policy Brief #95: What triggers economic insecurity and who is most at risk?
A full recovery from the pandemic crisis is not possible without addressing economic security and reducing inequality.
This policy brief highlights inequality in the experience of economic security focusing on the risks to livelihoods and the protections against those risks as laid out by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
UN/DESA Policy Brief #94: A changing world of work: implications for the social contract
COVID-19 has had a devastating impact on the world
of work, hitting labour markets that were already weak
and fragile.
UN/DESA Policy Brief #93: Social policy and social protection measures to build Africa better post-COVID-19
This policy brief reviews the socio-economic impacts of the COVID-19 crisis in Africa and presents the continent’s social protection responses.
UN/DESA Policy Brief #92: Leveraging digital technologies for social inclusion
COVID-19 is accelerating the pace of digital transformation. In so doing, it is opening the opportunities for advancing social progress and fostering social inclusion, while simultaneously exacerbating the risk of increased inequalities and exclusion of those who are not digitally connected.
UN/DESA Policy Brief #91: The politics of economic insecurity in the COVID-19 era
The COVID-19 crisis has served as a reminder of the extent of economic insecurity, even in countries and among groups that previously considered themselves secure. This is likely to have profound consequences, threatening countries’ ability to achieve the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its SDGs.
UN/DESA Policy Brief #90: A new global deal must promote economic security
Fears related to economic insecurity are on the rise. Changes in the world of work, together with globalization and technological breakthroughs, have benefited many people but are also putting many others at disadvantage or at risk. These long-standing trends, which have raised aspirations but also fears, are compounded by evolving threats, including those brought about by climate change and the COVID-19 pandemic.
UN/DESA Policy Brief #86: The long-term impact of COVID-19 on poverty
As developing countries currently face the prospect
of costly debt crises with far-reaching consequences,
global action is urgently needed. The window to mitigate
the disastrous long-term consequences of COVID-19 on
poverty is closing rapidly.
UN/DESA Policy Brief #84: Achieving SDGs in the wake of COVID-19: Scenarios for policymakers
Establishment of robust universal healthcare and social protection systems should be taken as immediate goals, and efforts should be made to build upon the emergency measures taken during the COVID-19 crisis so as to reach these goals.
UN/DESA Policy Brief #81: Impact of COVID-19 on SDG progress: a statistical perspective
COVID-19 is having a devastating impact on all 17 Goals and threatening the achievements already made in
many areas. While the virus has impacted everyone, it is the poorest and most vulnerable who are affected
disproportionally by the pandemic.
UN/DESA Policy Brief #82: COVID-19 and a primer on shock-responsive social protection systems
Risks of implementing more shockresponsive social protection include overwhelming demand, lack of coordination, poor targeting and negative public perception. These can be partially offset by ensuring universal access to programmes. A country’s available fiscal space and level of debt distress are key contextual factors that determine the feasibility of more shock-responsive social protection.
UN/DESA Policy Brief #80: Forests at the heart of a green recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic
This brief highlights how forests and the forestry sector provide essential services and products to support health and livelihoods during times of crisis, how investing in sustainable forest management and forestry jobs offer opportunities for a green recovery, and how healthy forests build resilience against future pandemics. In this context, it proposes policy recommendations to ensure that forest-based solutions be considered for recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic and building back better.
UN/DESA Policy Brief #79: The role of public service and public servants during the COVID-19 pandemic
If not contained, the pandemic will jeopardize meeting the 2030 deadline, by diverting resources from development efforts to crisis response. The public servant sits at the heart of ensuring effective response to the crisis, whether as a frontline worker in healthcare, or in devising strategies and plans to mitigate its impact.
UN/DESA Policy Brief #78: Achieving the SDGs through the COVID-19 response and recovery
The impact of COVID-19 on SDG achievement will only be known with certainty in the months to come, but assessments for 2020 are bleak. If responses are ad hoc, underfunded and without a view to long-term goals, decades of progress stand to be reversed. However, as countries begin to move towards recovery, coherent and comprehensive actions can place the world on a robust trajectory towards achieving sustainable development.
UN/DESA Policy Brief #75: COVID-19: Reaffirming State-People Governance Relationships
This policy brief discusses the role of effective governance, and in particular the role of the relationship between the state and people, in building countries’ resiliency and in responding to and managing nation-wide crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic.
UN/DESA Policy Brief #74: Resilient institutions in times of crisis: transparency, accountability and participation at the national level key to effective response to COVID-19
The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic presents a risk to key dimensions of national institutions highlighted in Sustainable Development Goal 16 (in terms of limiting transparency and access to information, eroding safeguards to accountability including integrity violations, fraud and corruption, and restricting participation and engagement).
UN/DESA Policy Brief #73: The impact of COVID-19 on sport, physical activity and well-being and its effects on social development
This policy brief highlights the challenges COVID-19 has posed to both the sporting world and to physical activity and well-being, including for marginalized or vulnerable groups. It further provides recommendations for Governments and other stakeholders, as well as for the UN system, to support the safe reopening of sporting events, as well as to support physical activity during the pandemic and beyond.
UN/DESA Policy Brief #70: The Impact of COVID-19 on Indigenous Peoples
COVID-19 presents a new threat to the health and survival of indigenous peoples. Indigenous peoples often experience widespread stigma and discrimination in healthcare settings such as stereotyping and a lack of quality in the care provided, thus compromising standards of care and discouraging them from accessing health care.
UN/DESA Policy Brief #69: Leaving no one behind: the COVID-19 crisis through the disability and gender lens
This policy brief highlights the impact of COVID-19 on women and girls with disabilities and provides policy guidance for governments and other stakeholders to adopt inclusive and accessible measures to not only mitigate the adverse impacts of the crisis but build resilient societies.
UN/DESA Policy Brief #68: COVID-19 and Older Persons: A Defining Moment for an Informed, Inclusive and Targeted Response
Multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination experienced by older persons are exacerbated during the COVID-19 pandemic and aggravate their vulnerabilities.