Climate action and jobs to be focus for leading young women economists in Secretary-General convened roundtable - 3 September 2020 – 8:00-10:00AM EDT]

New bold and innovative policy ideas and solutions to address the increasing acute situation of unemployment during the recovery from COVID-19, and the need to vastly accelerate climate action, will be presented by ten leading young women economists during a virtual roundtable discussion convened by UN Secretary-General António Guterres on Thursday, 3 September.  

Both jobs and climate change are critical for recovery and the roundtable discussion will elicit ‘out-of-the-box’ ideas and solutions to overcome the massive unemployment caused by the crisis, which, has caused the loss of millions of jobs worldwide, and the urgent need to confront the climate crisis, which is continuing to worsen.

 Even before the pandemic, an estimated 61 percent of the global workforce was informally employed, with 93 percent of informal employment taking place in emerging and developing regions where social protection is weaker. Only 45 percent of the global population were covered by at least one social protection benefit—leaving 4 billion people unprotected.

Since the pandemic, hours of work are estimated to have dropped 14 per cent globally, equivalent to a loss of 400 million full-time jobs. By mid-May, 94 percent of the world’s workers were living in countries with some type of workplace closure in place, while 38 percent of the workforce—some 1.25 billion workers—were employed in high-risk sectors often without social protection.

The roundtable is the second in a series aimed at addressing how the world can move forward as it recovers from COVID-19 by laying the foundation for long-term, quality, sustainable development.  The Secretary-General has called for using this moment for rethinking development models toward growth that is low-carbon, resilient, sustainable, and inclusive.

Also participating in the Roundtable is Minister of Finance, Republic of Indonesia, Sri Mulyani Indrawati, and UN Deputy-Secretary-General Amina Mohammed. 
 
The Roundtable participants include:

Emily L. Breza, Assistant Professor in the Department of Economics at Harvard University

Laura Carvalho, Associate Professor of Economics at the University of São Paulo

Bogolo Kenewendo,  Former Cabinet Minister of Investment, Trade and Industry, in the Cabinet of Botswana

Maty Konte, Research Fellow/Economist at United Nations University (UNU-MERIT)

Akiko Naka, Founder and CEO of Wantedly Inc.

Nadia Ouedraogo, Economic Affairs Officer at Economic Commission of Africa

Dyah Pritadrajati, Social Protection Expert at Asian Development Bank

Kate Raworth, Senior Associate, Environmental Change, Oxford University’s Environmental    Change Institute

Carys Roberts, Executive Director of the Institute for Public Policy Research in the UK

Julie Rozenberg, Senior Economist for The World Bank Sustainable Development Group

Busi Sibeko, Researcher and Economist at the Institute for Economic Justice in South Africa
 

3 September 2020

UN ENVIRONMENT