This report sets out the framework for the United Nations’ urgent socio-economic support to countries and societies in the face of COVID-19, putting 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 COVID19 Global Humanitarian Response Plan.
This socio-economic response framework consists of five streams of work:
1. Ensuring that essential health services are still available and protecting health systems;
2. Helping people cope with adversity, through social protection and basic services;
3. Protecting jobs and supporting small- and medium-sized enterprises and informal sector workers through economic response and 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 a strong environmental sustainability and gender equality imperative to build back better.