Social Watch Philippines, Action for Economic Reforms and other civil society organizations deepen our understanding of the implications of #COVID19 on the economy, social policies, gender, rural and urban perspectives.

In recent years, the opportunities and challenges presented by rapid digitalization have become a staple on various agendas across the United Nations. Within the past few months, as the socioeconomic impacts of COVID-19 increase global reliance on digital technology, the relevance of and concerns about digitalization have heightened. Digital technologies have been prominent in a number of UN processes and deliberations such as UN75, human rights reports, the Roadmap for Digital Cooperation and the 2020 High-level Political Forum.

A snapshot of the ongoing work at the United Nations in times of crisis

This briefing paper looks at the financing for development (FfD) work at the United Nations in 2020, an exceptional year due to outbreak of the global coronavirus crisis in the spring. Following this shock, FfD became a highly relevant issue on the UN agenda. The FfD process as originally scheduled was redesigned, with the FfD Forum originally scheduled for April cut down from four days of face-to-face meetings to a virtual session that lasted for just one hour. An official outcome document was adopted anyway, however free of concrete commitments that would match the needs of coping with the crisis.

Statement prepared by Lebanese CSOs after Beirut’s Explosion, the statement is addressed to International Organizations, the United Nations Agencies and International Partners.

On August 4, 2020, Beirut was hit by the biggest explosion in its history, leading to more than 200 killed, seven thousand wounded, and tens of missing (according to the latest figures by the Ministry of Public Health) before the Lebanese army announced that it would stop the search for the missing in addition to causing disabilities and increasing the suffering of people with disabilities in general.

Over 70 per cent of young people who were either studying or combining study and work before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic experienced school closures, and not all were able to transition into online and distance learning, the International Labour Organization (ILO) has said.

According to a report on youth and COVID-19, the ILO said that COVID-19 has left one in eight young people (13 per cent) without any access to courses, teaching or training.