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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 #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 #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.
UN/DESA Policy Brief #67: Protecting and mobilizing youth in COVID-19 responses
Young people will form a key element in an inclusive recovery
and the achievement of the Sustainable Development
Goals (SDGs) during this Decade of Action. However,
the response and recovery must be done in a way that
protects the human rights of all youth.
UN/DESA Policy Brief #58: COVID-19: Addressing the social crisis through fiscal stimulus plans
Countries are quickly acting to counter its negative impact on employment and poverty, including through fiscal stimulus plans. Whether these plans will protect the most disadvantaged people and households over the long-term depends on their size, duration and on how measures are implemented.
UN/DESA Policy Brief #53: Reflection on development policy in the 1970s and 1980s
After almost three decades of remarkable progress since the end of the Second World War, economic conditions started to deteriorate in the 1970s. Economic growth slowed down in all parts of the world during the second half of the 1970s and the first half of the 1980s. Before the oil price shock of 1973, the annual growth of world gross product had been at 5.3 per cent, while during the rest of the 1970s, annual world growth reached only 2.8 per cent.