Low-skilled workers, developing countries at risk of steep economic decline as coronavirus advances

1 April 2020
Economic Development
UN News/Elizabeth Scaffidi

The global economy could shrink by up to one per cent in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and may contract even further if restrictions on economic activities are extended without adequate fiscal responses, according to analysis released today by the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA).

WHO concerned over rapid escalation in COVID-19 spread as caseload approaches one million

COVID-19: International community must step up to prevent pandemic from devastating vulnerable on the run

‘Working round the clock’ to aid Venezuelan refugees and migrants during COVID-19 pandemic: UN agencies 

COVID-19 effect casts cloud over weather alert accuracy: UN sky watchers

COVID-19: Czech Roma community steps up to face mask challenge

PAHO Barbados/Brenda Lashley

Protecting the Caribbean’s most vulnerable people in the face of COVID-19: A UN Resident Coordinator blog

Health

The United Nations is working closely with governments in the Caribbean to protect the region’s most vulnerable people from the impact of the deadly coronavirus, COVID-19. For this latest in our occasional series, Didier Trebucq, United Nations Resident Coordinator to Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean, explains what action they are taking in that region.

UNOCHA

Nigeria: UN and partners acting to avert coronavirus spread in displacement camps

Health

The UN system in Nigeria and its partners are working to reduce the spread of the new coronavirus disease in some of the most vulnerable areas in the country: communities and camps housing millions of internally displaced people (IDPs) uprooted by the Boko Haram insurgency in the northeast.

WFP/Wissam Nassar

Coronavirus pandemic threatens to plunge millions in Arab region into poverty and food insecurity

Health

COVID-19 will be responsible for pushing a further 8.3 million people in the Arab region into poverty, according to a new policy brief issued on Wednesday by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA).

©UNHCR/Felipe Irnaldo

UN refugee agency ‘rapidly adjusting’ the way it works amid COVID-19 pandemic

Migrants and Refugees

With COVID-19 already having a significant impact on its field operations, the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) has outlined a series of measures it is taking to respond to the public health emergency and prevent further spread. 

UN Photo/Mark Garten

UN launches COVID-19 plan that could ‘defeat the virus and build a better world’

Health

The UN chief launched on Tuesday a new plan to counter the potentially devastating socio-economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, calling on everyone to “act together to lessen the blow to people”.

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