Press Release
There will be no return to the “old normal”, governments must act to create a new economy and more jobs.
NEW YORK, 27 APRIL 2020—The urgent health crisis that is COVID-19 has created a historic recession with
record levels of deprivation and unemployment, creating an unprecedented human crisis that is hitting the
poorest hardest, especially women and children. In a new framework released today as a roadmap to support
countries’ path to social and economic recovery, the United Nations calls for an extraordinary scale-up of international
support and political commitment to ensure that people everywhere have access to essential services
and social protection.
The “United Nations Framework for the immediate socio-economic response to COVID-19: Shared responsibility,
global solidarity and urgent action for people in need” calls for protecting jobs, businesses and livelihoods to set
in motion a safe recovery of societies and economies as soon as possible for a more sustainable, gender-equal,
and carbon-neutral path—better than the “old normal”.
“This is not only a health crisis but a human crisis; a jobs crisis; a humanitarian crisis and a development crisis.
And it is not just about the most vulnerable. This pandemic shows that we are all at risk because we are only
as strong as the weakest health system. Its unprecedented scale demands an unprecedented response,” said
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres, who presented his report on the socio-economic impacts
of COVID-19 “Shared Responsibility, Global Solidarity” in March.
“Everything we do during and after this crisis must be with a strong focus on building more equal, inclusive and
sustainable economies and societies that are more resilient in the face of pandemics, climate change and the
many other global challenges we face,” he said. This new framework released today sets the way United Nations
entities will deliver this vision on the ground.
Decisions made in the next few months will be crucial for the progress towards the Sustainable Development
Goals (SDGs), the UN’s framework for social and economic recovery stresses.
Noting that during the Ebola outbreak in 2014, more people died from the interruption of social services and the
economic breakdown than from the virus itself, the framework focuses on protecting the needs and rights of
those most affected by the pandemic, starting with the most vulnerable countries, groups, and those who risk
being left behind.
Drawing lessons from the 2008-2009 global economic and financial crisis, the framework notes that countries
with strong social protection systems and basic services suffered the least and recovered the fastest. To prevent
billions of people from sliding into poverty, governments around the world will need to rapidly adapt, extend and
scale-up safety ‘cushions’, such as cash transfers, food assistance, social insurance schemes and child benefits
to support families.
For the impacts of COVID-19 to be reduced, the UN calls for an extraordinary scale-up of support to cope with
the challenges ahead, including immediate social protection responses that consider differentiated impacts on
vulnerable groups, children, women, men, and those in the informal sector. This is particularly urgent considering
that 4 billion people, more than half of the world population—including two out of three children—have no or
inadequate social protection.
NOTES FOR THE EDITORS
The UN will focus on five key streams in its response, which places communities at the centre of recovery efforts:
1. protecting existing health services and strengthening health systems’ capacity to respond to COVID-19;
2. helping people cope with adversity, through social protection and basic services; 3. protecting jobs, supporting
small and medium-sized enterprises, and informal sector workers through economic recovery programmes;
4. guiding the necessary surge in fiscal and financial stimulus to make macroeconomic policies work for the
most vulnerable and strengthening multilateral and regional responses; and 5. promoting social cohesion and
investing in community-led resilience and response systems. These five streams are connected by action to
meet the need for environmental sustainability, if countries are to recover and “build back better”, and be better
prepared to address future shocks, including pandemics.
UN teams covering 162 countries and territories will rollout this recovery plan in the next 12 to 18 months, under
the leadership of UN Resident Coordinators (RC), supported by a network of global and regional expertise. As the
technical lead in the socio-economic recovery effort, the UN Development Programme (UNDP) will support RCs,
with UN teams working as one across all aspects of the response.
While a significant proportion of the existing US$17.8 billion portfolio of sustainable development
programmes across UN entities will be adjusted towards COVID-19 needs, given the scale and scope of the
socio-economic impact of the pandemic, additional funds will be required. To support these efforts, the
Secretary-General launched the United Nations COVID-19 Response and Recovery Fund, a UN inter-agency
fund mechanism to help support low- and middle-income programme countries overcome the health and
development crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and support people most vulnerable to economic hardship
and social disruption. The financial requirements of the Fund are projected at $1billion in the first nine months and
will be subsequently reviewed. The Secretary-General also called for a multilateral response that amounts to at
least 10 per cent of global gross domestic product (GDP) to mount the most effective response to crisis the
world has ever seen.
There will be no return to the “old normal”, the framework document states. The pandemic is a blow to develop-ing
and emerging economies that already face binding constraints of debt and limited fiscal space, with several
developing countries needing urgent debt relief. Its impacts will be especially devastating for the most vulnerable
countries – those in humanitarian or conflict settings. The UN also calls for a massive fiscal and financial
repurposing in the next weeks and months, including the redirection of fossil fuel subsidies to aid the response.
The UN stresses that the status quo and business-as-usual are policy choices, and they are not inevitable.
For a sustainable development that benefits more people, the choice must be for a recovery from COVID-19 that
is fast, fair, green and inclusive.
About the framework document
The “United Nations Framework for the immediate socio-economic response to COVID-19: Shared responsibility,
global solidarity and urgent action for people in need”, released today puts in practice the UN Secretary-
General’s Shared Responsibility, Global Solidarity report on the same subject. It is one of three critical components
of the UN’s efforts to save lives, protect people, and rebuild better, alongside the health response, led
by the World Health Organization (WHO), and the humanitarian response, as detailed in the UN-led COVID-19
Global Humanitarian Response Plan. Three funding mechanisms support the comprehensive response pillars:
The COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund, managed by the UN Foundation and the Swiss Philanthropy Foundation
for the immediate health needs; the “Global Humanitarian Response Plan” for the humanitarian appeal; and the
United Nations COVID-19 Response and Recovery Fund for the socio-economic recovery.
About the UN Development System
The United Nations development system is the world’s largest international actor on social protection and
basic services. The UN System is present in 162 countries and territories and reaches tens of millions of people
through basic services, social transfers and other forms of social protection. The UN Development System has
extensive experience in supporting governments in developing social protection systems including social protection
floors and delivery of quality social services and to support such services across humanitarian and
development contexts. unsdg.un.org
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