The United Nations said that the world should immediately address the social and economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic or the global suffering would escalate and endanger the lives and livelihoods for years to come.
The UN came out with the warning as part of a framework for the immediate socio-economic response to Coronavirus. The United Nations Development Programme will provide technical lead in UN’s efforts. The UN said it will come up with recovery plan in the next 12 to 18 months.
UNDP Administrator Achim Steiner said they are committed as the social and economic impact of the crisis will be profound. He said that the World Bank had warned that the pandemic could push between 40 and 60 million people into extreme poverty. The International Labour Organisation also said warned of 195 million jobs lost. Moreover, the World Food Programme estimates that 135 million people are facing crisis levels of hunger or worse and another 130 million are on the edge of starvation.
The UNDP will provide a strategy based on five critical pillars. They are protecting health services and systems, protecting jobs and small and medium sized enterprises, social protection and basic services, macroeconomic response and multilateral collaboration and social cohesion and community resilience.
