Dear Colleague,
COVID-19 has disrupted human development and reversed trends in poverty and inequality reduction, making the work of this CoP and its related SDGs of the utmost importance in our response and recovery efforts ahead. In this new Issue of the COP Snapshot, we highlight key events, readings, and resources, providing fresh perspectives and insights on key areas of inclusive growth.
From our UNDP Developments section, do not miss the recent event on “Innovation in the informal economy” – in the context of the 2021 Istanbul Innovation Days. Also, find at our Publications and Resources segment a new UNDP study on “Sovereign Debt Vulnerabilities in Developing Economies” – as part of the Development Futures Series.
Check out upcoming online events, trainings, and opportunities at the bottom of this Issue. Share your views or ask how this community can help you by sending a message to cop-poverty@undp.org.
Thank you for your continued support of this community!
Stay tuned,
Ricardo, Samantha, Rishi, and Renata
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Innovation in the informal economy - what do policymakers need to know?
ONLINE EVENT - APRIL 2021 - WATCH HERE
COVID-19 has revealed the precarious state of informal workers with no access to social protection and the challenges facing different countries to respond to unprecedented shocks. As part of the 2021 Istanbul Innovation Days, this conversation discussed key development and legislative paths to informality as a resilient form of economic activity. Resident Representatives Aissata De (Gambia) and Georges Van Montfort (Zimbabwe) shared their experiences of working with Governments and other partners on informality, and Mansour Ndiaye (Head of BPPS Inclusive Growth Team) spoke about the upcoming UNDP’s Informal Economy Facility. Watch here.
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Embracing People-Centered Governance Innovation at the Local Level
ONLINE CONSULTATION - MARCH - APRIL 2021- READ HERE
This 3-week electronic discussion – led by the Community of Practice on Governance, in collaboration with the CoPs on Poverty and Inequality, SDG Integration, Resilience, Environment, Energy and Gender – discussed diverse perspectives, insights, and stories towards a new, evidence-based local governance offer to build forward better and ensure a green recovery agenda. Contributions will be consolidated in a synthesis document that will inform UNDP’s NextGen Offer on Local Governance rooted in country-level experience and innovation from across the organization. Check it out!
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COVID-19 and Crisis Contexts: Lessons Learned and a Pathway Towards Recovery
ONLINE WEBINAR - MARCH 2021 - WATCH HERE
Check out this event - marking the one-year anniversary of WHO declaring COVID-19 a pandemic – as part of the ongoing Development Dialogues series. It discusses the wide-ranging impacts of the coronavirus on fragile contexts, and how this virus has dealt a devastating blow to those most left behind – both today, and in terms of their hopes for a better future. The high-level panel, featuring BPPS's own Haoliang Xu and Crisis Bureau's George Conway, examined the results of initial rapid action to limit the fallout from COVID-19 and protect development gains and called for urgent support to fragile contexts, towards a resilient recovery. Watch here.
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NEPAL
SUPPORTING LIVELIHOODS AND NEW TECH TO TACKLE THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC
This ongoing project in Nepal seeks to respond to the needs of the large informal sector (70% of the country's workforce) and the constraints forced upon them by the COVID-19 pandemic. The UNDP Country Team, in partnership with the Nepal Accelerator Lab and incubator CellApp Innovations, is working to support and scale up local government capacities to disseminate information that is directly linked to the livelihoods of many Nepali workers. Read more and get in touch with focal points here.
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Publications and Resources
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Protecting Women's Livelihoods in Times of Pandemic: Temporary Basic Income and the Road to Gender Equality
POLICY BRIEF - MARCH 2021 - READ HERE
Global trends in women's exclusion and disenfranchisement in the labor force have been mirrored and exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, the impacts of which disproportionately burden women. This policy brief, a part of the Development Futures Series, examines the question of how to "cushion the adverse effects during the COVID-19 crisis while paving the way for structural transformation." Read More Here.
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UNDP study reveals the magnitude of sovereign debt vulnerabilities in developing economies
POLICY BRIEF - APRIL 2021 - READ HERE
Authored by Lars Jensen, Economist and Policy Specialist at UNDP’s Strategic Policy Engagement Team, BPPS, this paper analyzes sovereign debt vulnerabilities in low- and middle-income economies. From a sample of 120 countries, it identifies 72 as “vulnerable,” 19 of which are “severely vulnerable.” The paper concludes that, although most vulnerable countries are not on the verge of a default, debt vulnerabilities for these countries will likely not return to pre-pandemic levels until 2024-2025. Check out the paper here.
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UNCTAD's 2021 Technology and Innovation Report: Innovation with Equity
REPORT - MARCH 2021 - READ HERE
The Technology and Innovation Report 2021 critically examines the role of frontier technologies such as AI, robotics, and gene-editing in widening existing inequalities and creating new ones The report argues that frontier technologies are essential for sustainable development, but they also could accentuate inequalities in the process. It is up to policies, ultimately, to reduce this risk and make frontier technologies contribute to increasing equality. This report considers how developing countries can catch the wave of frontier technologies, balancing innovation with equity in pursuit of the Sustainable Development Goals. Read the report here.
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Examining Multidimensional Poverty Reduction in India: An OPHI Study
RESEARCH PUBLICATION - FEBRUARY 2021 - READ HERE
This Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI) paper, co-authored by UNDP Inclusive Growth team's Christian Oldiges, examines patterns of multidimensional poverty in India between 2005/6 and 2015/6. It finds that India managed to reduce its Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) by half, elevating 271 million out of poverty within a decade. The paper makes the case that understanding poverty must go beyond headcount measures to truly capture the multidimensional nature and experiences of poverty and its deprivations in policy and programme responses. MPI-based approaches, like the ones used in this study, are powerful tools for capturing these experiences and insights, while ensuring that no one is left behind. Read the report here.
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UNU Report on the Future of Global Governance
REPORT - MARCH 2021 - READ HERE
This United Nations University report explores trends in society, politics, technology, security, and the environment and how they will shape the future of global governance. It projects four megatrends over the next three decades: 1) Inequality will continue to grow and undermine the legitimacy of global institutions; 2) The diffusion of centers of power will create uncertainty and drive new conflicts; 3) strategic litigation will challenge State authority and empower non-State actors; 4) technology will continue to drive rapid, unequal development. Read the report here.
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UNDP's Development Dialogues Podcast:
Braving the Secondary Effects of COVID-19
PODCAST RECOMMENDATION
UNDP's Development Dialogues series recently launched its new Development Dialogues podcast, hosted by broadcaster Henry Bonsu. This episode dives into the data surrounding fragile countries and how they have been impacted by the "secondary effects" of COVID-19. A variety of guest speakers, including UN experts, UNDP Representatives, and other multilateral representatives discuss the changes that must happen within the international community and their plans and action to create a stronger COVID-19 recovery for all. Listen here!
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Less is More: How Degrowth Will Save the World by Jason Hickel (Dec. 2020)
BOOK RECOMMENDATION
Continuing in the same direction that we are going right now - one of exponential growth driven by capitalism - will have potentially irreversible consequences on both people and planet. Hickel argues that it is not just mindful capitalism and environmental action that will put us on a safe course, but rather a commitment to "degrowth." This philosophy flips the current narrative of exploitation and extraction on its head and instead promotes reciprocity and regeneration as both means and ends. This book examines what a post-capitalist economy would look like and how it can reverse many of the crises we currently face. Find more here.
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Next Normal Now: Re-imagining Capitalism for Our Future
WEBINAR - EXTERNAL - 20 APRIL 2021
Join the Global Impact Investing Network (GIIN) for the Next Normal Now series, examining real systemic changes unfolding in the here and now from the people helping make them happen. This series of free live virtual convenings focusing on Inclusive Growth will leave you with a greater understanding of impact investing and how this growing movement is leading the way to a more inclusive economy and a more sustainable world. Register here for the first event, happening at 9am EST on 20 April.
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Key Issues of Data Protection for Social Protection and Implications for Linking Social Protection to Sustainable Employment
WEBINAR - EXTERNAL - 27 APRIL 2021
Learn more about data protection and security considerations for creating sustainable social protection systems. Join this online webinar hosted by the Social Protection for Employment Community (SPEC), Australian AID and others, as they discuss how data protection and privacy issues have to be considered in programmes linking social protection to sustainable employment Register for the event on 27 April here.
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Inclusive Social Protection for Migrants, Refugees and Asylum Seekers: Myth or Reality?
WEBINAR - EXTERNAL - 29 APRIL 2021
This event, hosted jointly by the International Policy Centre for Inclusive Growth (IPC-IG) and UNICEF, will offer an assessment of global practices on the access of international migrants and their families to national SP systems and aims at informing the policy debate on extending SP to international migrants in the MENA region. Learn more and register for the 29 April event here.
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Istanbul Innovation Days: Development and its Futures
VIRTUAL EVENTS - INTERNAL - ONGOING
Catch up on the events of the ongoing Istanbul Innovation Days 2021 (IID) series, UNDP’s platform for engaging with edge thinkers and doers who are exploring alternative development futures today. From indigenous data sovereignty to economic sci-fi, IID participants experience and interact with multiple possibilities and alternative development paths with the objective of questioning our assumptions and making system transformation very tangible. Learn more and view past events here.
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System of Environmental-Economic Accounting Framework E-Courses
E-COURSE - INTERNAL - ONGOING
The System of Environmental-Economic Accounting (SEEA) Central Framework is a multipurpose conceptual framework for measuring the interactions between the environment and the economy. By providing an internationally agreed standard with agreed concepts, definitions and classifications, the SEEA is an invaluable tool for compiling integrated statistics on the economy and the environment and deriving coherent and comparable indicators to measure progress towards sustainable development. Take the SEEA's free e-courses (in multiple languages!) here!
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Ninth Annual International Conference on Sustainable Development (ICSD) - Call for Papers
CALL FOR ABSTRACTS - EXTERNAL - SUBMIT BY 1 MAY
Submit your research proposal to the Ninth Annual International Conference on Sustainable Development related to the theme of “An Inclusive and Sustainable Planet.” Submit your proposals by 1 May 2021.
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UNDP's DEVELOPMENT FUTURES SERIES
CALL FOR PROPOSALS - INTERNAL- ONGOING
UNDP's Development Futures Series encourages and invites UNDP personnel from around the world to explore new development ideas, analysis and policy recommendations, and share evidence and insights grounded in deep study, data and practice. This first call for papers of 2021 encourages all UNDP colleagues and offices to submit ideas for Policy Briefs that build on data and analysis of the impact of the Covid-19 crisis. An initial round of papers will be published in time for HLPF 2021 to inform the conversation around this year’s HLPF theme of sustainable and resilient recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. For more information and to submit your proposal, please email development.futures@undp.org and learn more 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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