FEBRUARY 19, 2021
Dear Colleague,
In this new Issue of the COP Snapshot, we highlight our Administrator’s message delivered at the First Regular Session of UNDP Executive Board on 2 February, which provides a summary of UNDP’s development results in 2020 and the COVID-19 response.
Don’t miss the registration for the Massive Online Open Course (MOOC) on “Designing a Multidimensional Poverty Index” which starts next Monday, 22 February. Offered in English, French, and Spanish, this six-week course will run until 2 April 2021. Click here to register!
On 22 February, we will conduct a 30-min long 'CoP Clinic' session (in Spanish), where you will learn more about UNDP’s eight Communities of Practice and how we can support your work. Come with any questions, suggestions, and bold ideas for upcoming engagements. Reserve your spot here!
Share your views or ask how this community can help you by sending a message to cop-poverty@undp.org.
Stay tuned,
Ricardo, Samantha, Rishi, and Renata
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A Year in Review of UNDP’s COVID-19 Response
On 2 February, UNDP’s Administrator Achim Steiner delivered a speech to the First Regular session of UNDP’s Executive Board 2021. Following a short video presentation on UNDP’s digital strategy, the Administrator delivered opening remarks, addressing critical issues on the impact of and response to COVID-19. His intervention focused on three aspects: 1) a preview of UNDP’s development results in 2020; 2) a review of the institutional and financial outcomes and milestones reached in 2020; and 3) an outline of critical priorities for 2021. Watch and read the speech here.
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Informality and Social Protection in African Countries: A Forward-looking Assessment of Contributory Schemes:
FEBRUARY 2021 – This UNDP report examines the significant efforts made by seven African governments to create and strengthen social protection schemes for informal economy workers and the challenges that lie ahead. It gives an overview of the social protection design practices in place, identifying innovative approaches to easily and quickly scale these practices to better reach the populations of interest. Additionally, the report calls for greater financial stability and increased stakeholder engagement to improve the scope, effectiveness and sustainability of social protection programs. Read the report and watch the publication launch event here.
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A Green Approach to Human Development
FEBRUARY 2021 – In this article, UN ASG and UNDP Regional Director for Asia and the Pacific, Kanni Wignaraja, writes of the urgent need to make sustainable development truly environmentally sustainable and responsible. Countries that have achieved high levels of human development have done so at the expense of generating large emissions and carbon footprints – but this is not sustainable for the future. Urgent action is needed in cities to promote behavior changes, scale-up private investment, and prioritize nature-based solutions to thwart threatening reversals in human development to shape a more sustainable, inclusive, and healthy future. Read the article here.
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SDGi's Temporary Basic Income Simulator (TBI)
As the impact of COVID-19 continues to be exposed across the developing world, we're seeing the increasingly devastating costs of job losses and income reversals. Unconditional emergency cash transfers can mitigate the worst immediate effects of the COVID-19 crisis on poor and near-poor households that do not currently have access to social assistance or insurance protection. As a part of the UNDP Data Futures Platform, the new Temporary Basic Income Simulator explores TBI as policy choice by examining how much minimum guaranteed income above the poverty line is needed for vulnerable people in 132 developing countries, and how much financing it entails. Explore the simulator and learn more here.
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UNDP Syria Hosts Social Enterprise Challenge on Women's Economic Empowerment
In early February, the UNDP Syria Country Office and Accelerator Lab launched their first Social Enterprises Challenge utilizing the Sparkblue platform to collect knowledge and catalyze innovation for social enterprises and women's economic empowerment policy and programming. The challenge, created as part of the UNDP Economic Development and Livelihoods (EDL) portfolio, invites UNDP colleagues, academics, entrepreneurs, and experts to support the development of new/and or existing social enterprises in Syria that feed directly into women's economic empowerment and serve as sustainable instruments for financial inclusion interventions. The challenge thus far has received over 50 ideas, strengthening multi-sectoral stakeholder involvement and connecting thought-leaders, innovators, and practitioners to create sustainable and meaningful initiatives. Discover some of the ideas here, and be in touch with your CoP Facilitators by sending a message to cop-poverty@undp.org if Syria's initiative is something you'd like to replicate for your own Country Office!
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The State of Economic Inclusion Report 2021: The Potential to Scale
This World Bank report examines the challenge of transforming the economic lives of the poorest. As COVID-19 disproportionately impacts the most vulnerable, financial inclusion programs have become central parts of medium- and long-term recovery efforts and are currently on the rise in 75 countries – benefitting nearly 92 million people. The report finds an unprecedented surge in government-led programming related to social protection, jobs, and livelihoods, with an emphasis on women’s economic empowerment. Increasing strides towards digital innovations, including young people, and focusing on the informal sector can help accelerate a transformative COVID-19 recovery. Learn more and read the report here.
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Multilateralism as a Key Enabler of the Decade of Action
FEBRUARY 2021 – While the likelihood of returning to a pre-COVID-19 ‘normal’ is unlikely, the pandemic presents a unique opportunity to do things differently. In this piece, Emmanuel Macron, Angela Merkel, Macky Sall, Antonio Guterres, Charles Michel, and Ursula Von Der Leyen discuss the need for ambitious decision-making and commitment to a collaborative and coordinated response. There are many crises simultaneously occurring – health, environmental, economic, social– and the strength of the recovery in one area depends on the ability of the global system and its individual actors to make strident efforts in all areas. Orienting around a multilateral response and utilizing the fora and opportunities to engage in this collaborative approach is essential to address these challenges towards a better future. Read the article here.
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[PODCAST] The Legacy of Egypt’s Arab Spring
Ten years after a popular uprising overthrew Hosni Mubarak, Egypt seems to be trapped in a spiral of repression, poverty, inequality, and disillusionment. Check out this conversation between Elmira Bayrasli, the co-founder and CEO of Foreign Policy Interrupted, and Michael Wahid Hanna, a senior fellow at The Century Foundation, on why the Arab Spring failed in bringing about meaningful change and whether its aspirations can still be realized. Although another Egyptian revolution seems pretty unlikely at the moment, the legacy of the Arab Spring is here to stay and may likely have echoes in years to come. Listen here
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Stakeholder Capitalism: A Global Economy that Works for Progress, People and Planet
JANUARY 2021 | by Klaus Schwab and Peter Vanham - The COVID-19 pandemic has shown the inability of the current economic system to deliver inclusive and sustainable growth. Yet, it has also opened a window of opportunity to put countries in a development trajectory that fulfills the demands for inclusion, preserves the environment, and leaves no one behind. Based on best practices from China, Denmark, Ethiopia, Germany, Indonesia, New Zealand, and Singapore, this book sheds new light on how we can make capitalism work for sustainable human prosperity. It proposes ways to enhance countries’ agency against shocks, foster social cohesion, improve development measures, and plan for future generations. Read more.
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How to Avoid a Climate Disaster: The Solutions We Have and the Breakthroughs We Need
FEBRUARY 2021 | by Bill Gates - The climate emergency is upon us, and achieving zero emissions and reversing some of the catastrophic trends of a changing climate will not be easy. In this urgent book, Bill Gates examines not only the reasoning for why we must act swiftly and boldly, but identifies in detail the 'breakthroughs' and action we need in order to do it. The book discusses the role of technology and innovation, finance, biology, chemistry, policy, and engineering in a practical and accessible way that calls upon not only governments and policymakers, but individuals, too. Read more on Gates' argument and see the book here.
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22 DE FEBRERO - Durante esta sesión de 30 minutos de duración, que se llevará a cabo íntegramente en español, conocerá a los facilitadoras de los Foros de Intercambio (CoP por sus siglas en inglés) y aprenderá más sobre las ocho CoPs del PNUD. Los facilitadores también presentarán la Plataforma de Participación Digital del PNUD, SparkBlue, y explicarán cómo puede sumar su voz a las consultas en línea internas y externas dirigidas por las CoP que se realizan cada mes en www.sparkblue.org.
Después de esta breve introducción tendremos una sesión de preguntas y respuestas. Participe con cualquier pregunta que tenga, preo también con sugerencias e ideas para las próximas actividades con su CoP.
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COVID-19 and Informality: Effects of the Pandemic on the Labor Market
FEBRUARY 22 - COVID-19 has had unprecedented effects on the labor markets of Latin America and the Caribbean. The pandemic occurred in the context of economic weakness in the region, and it has disproportionally affected workers in some occupations, particularly those in the informal sector. This Inter-American Development Bank event will examine the results of different research documents that model the pandemic's effects on various Latin American countries' labor markets. These results include the dynamics of formal and informal labor markets in the context of the pandemic restrictions. This event will also discuss the effectiveness of public policy alternatives focused on facilitating the creation of better jobs to meet the needs illuminated by COVID-19. Note that this free event will be held in Spanish, with simultaneous interpretation into English. Register and learn more here!
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Innovative Approaches to Debt for a COVID-19 Recovery
24 FEBRURARY - The CoP on Poverty and Inequality is hosting global webinar on Debt Relief for a Green and Inclusive Recovery to discuss the recent report of the same name on Wednesday, 24 February at 8:00 AM EST (2:00 PM CET). The report, a joint initiative of the Boston University Global Policy Center, the Heinrich Böll Stiftung, and the Centre for Sustainable Finance, ”outlines an ambitious proposal for comprehensive debt relief that includes the private sector and middle-income countries, in an effort to jump start a green and inclusive recovery from COVID-19.” Three of the report authors, Shamshad Akhtar, Stephany Griffith-Jones, and Ulrich Volz, will start the conversation and present the main takeaways and calls for action. We’ll then be joined by UNDP colleagues, including CoP Poverty and Inequality Champion Luis Felipe Lopez Calva, to discuss findings as they relate UNDP’s work across regions. Reserve your spot here!
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Using Human Rights and Sustainable Development Frameworks to Ensure Sustainable Recovery from COVID-19 in Africa
25 FEBRUARY - This Africa Regional Forum on Sustainable Development side event examines the current state of implementation of the SDGs and Agenda 2030 in light of the pandemic's worsening of existing patterns of inequality, vulnerability and discrimination. To address this, the integration of international human rights norms and standards in the design and implementation of COVID-19 socio-economic and political responses and recovery processes is critical. This event will explore human rights-based sustainable recovery approaches to COVID-19, centering around the principle of Leaving No One Behind. The event is jointly organized by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, The Network of African National Human rights Institutions, Danish Institute for Human Rights, and UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. The meeting will be held in English with French interpretation. Register here!
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Istanbul Innovation Days: Development and its Futures
Istanbul Innovation Days 2021 (IID) is UNDP’s platform for engaging with edge thinkers and doers who are exploring alternative development futures today. IID is an opportunity for UNDP colleagues to engage with those who are already out there, “doing” system change and asking what all of us can do to embrace the brave new world of development post COVID.
The theme for this year’s event is “Development and its futures”, building on the intellectual underpinnings of the latest Human Development Report and the Future of Development dialogues. From indigenous data sovereignty to economic sci-fi, from bioengineered bacteria to the Black Lives Matter movement, we will experience and interact with multiple possibilities and alternative development paths with the objective of questioning our assumptions and making system transformation very tangible. IID will consist of 30 curated experiences over the period of 8 weeks, with the main event culminating on March 23-25. Learn more and register here!
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Your CoP team would love to hear from you! Contact us at cop-poverty@undp.org to send feedback or share content and events to be featured in our CoP Communications.
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