Issue 362 - March 20, 2020
The Covid-19 pandemic is a global health crisis (with major financial and economic consequences), but international organizations, starting with the World Health Organization, “are still insufficiently funded to respond quickly to the emergence of dangerous diseases – and to prevent them from spreading to global pandemics,” argue Jens Martens and Bodo Ellmers, from Global Policy Forum in a briefing paper published last March 18.
People in most Global South countries are likely to suffer its impact even more and therefore “in order to prevent the corona crisis from becoming a global development crisis, solidarity must not end at national borders.”
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Ollivier de Sutter, former Special Rapporteur of the United Nations on the Right to Food (2008–2014), was voted by the Human Rights Council in its March 13 session as Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and Extreme Poverty, from May 1 on.
Commenting on his appointment, De Sutter wrote: “Ironic turn of history: in May 2008, I inaugurated my mandate as Special Rapporteur on the right to food in a context of unprecedented crisis... Twelve years later, this new appointment comes at a time when a major economic recession is coming, with business closings chain, massive job losses, and an increase in poverty in the face of exhausted social protection systems.”
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Social Watch Philippines, together with Filipino academics and civil society representatives, presents a policy matrix that identifies urgent issues, provides analyses, and outlines recommendations on trade and development from a wide range of actors in time for the preparatory process leading to the UNCTAD XV Conference in Barbados, October 18–23, 2020.
Many of the positions in the matrix were presented to various government agencies in a spirit of policy dialogue.
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An initial assessment of the impact of COVID-19 on the global world of work says the effects will be far-reaching, pushing millions of people into unemployment, underemployment, and working poverty. The International Labour Organization (ILO) proposes measures for a decisive, coordinated, and immediate response.
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Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, many UN meetings scheduled for March, April and May have been cancelled, postponed, or reduced in participation. The High Level Political Forum (HLPF) should review at ministerial level the Agenda 2030 and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals.
Social Watch remains committed to support alternative civil society reporting and disseminate their findings.
Guidelines for the 2020 Social Watch contributions are available:
English,
French,
Spanish.
SOCIAL WATCH IS AN INTERNATIONAL NGO WATCHDOG NETWORK MONITORING POVERTY ERADICATION AND GENDER EQUALITY
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