Africa UN Knowledge Hub for COVID-19

The United Nations called this week for expanded debt relief to all developing countries that request it and faster, more equitable COVID-19 vaccinations to tackle “unprecedented” fallout from the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

• Initiative led by the world’s six largest youth organizations and supported by the World Health Organization and United Nations Foundation will fund the work of young people in communities impacted by the global COVID-19 pandemic
• Impact of the global pandemic on young people to be addressed at Global Youth Summit
• Young people will decide where the money goes and how it is spent
• Global Youth Mobilization backed by UNICEF, USAID, UNFPA, European Commission, Salesforce, FIFA and Heads of State and Governments from around the world

From today, young people around the world will be able to apply for funding to support innovative Local Solutions to address the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, as part of a new initiative called the Global Youth Mobilization. Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General, climate change activist Greta Thunberg and youth representatives from the Global Youth Mobilization will launch the call for applications at a press conference on Monday 19 April 2021 at 1700 CEST.

Led by the Big 6 Youth Organizations and backed by the WHO and United Nations Foundation, the Global Youth Mobilization is an initiative of young people and voluntary organizations taking action to improve their lives now and in a post-COVID-19 world.

Hundreds of millions of young people have had to put their lives on hold because of the COVID-19 pandemic. 90 per cent of young people have reported increased mental anxiety during the pandemic; more than one billion students in almost every country have been impacted by school closures; 80 per cent of young women are worried about their future; and one in six young people worldwide have lost their jobs during the pandemic.[1]

The Global Youth Mobilization Local Solutions funding will by-pass traditional funding and support streams to invest in young people and community grassroots organizations anywhere in the world. A world first at this scale and level of ambition, young people and community organizations are able to apply for funding via one centralised platform, available in multiple languages. These local solutions will be judged and decided on by young people, for young people.

Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General, said: “WHO is committed to ensuring the voices, energy and solutions offered by youth are at the centre of the world’s recovery from COVID-19. Our collaboration with the Big 6 and the United Nations Foundation will fuel wide-ranging actions led by young people to address the challenges their own communities face, and will also provide global platforms for their wisdom and ideas to be heard and acted on.”

COVID-19 is a truly global crisis. This week, Secretary-General António Guterres called it “the biggest challenge for the world since World War Two”. By definition, that would make it the greatest challenge the United Nations has ever faced.

No country can escape either the health dimension of this crisis, or the economic dimension, on its own. As China has recently learned, even countries that control domestic transmission will remain vulnerable to viral resurgence while other countries struggle with COVID-19.

Following are UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ remarks to the opening of the 2021 Economic and Social Council Forum on Financing for Development, in New York today:

Financing for Development in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic means an unprecedented effort to mobilize resources and political will.  Since the pandemic began one year ago, no element of our multilateral response has gone as it should.

Washington —The United Nations called this week for expanded debt relief to all developing countries that request it and faster, more equitable COVID-19 vaccinations to tackle “unprecedented” fallout from the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

From today, young people around the world will be able to apply for funding to support innovative Local Solutions to address the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, as part of a new initiative called the Global Youth Mobilization. Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General, climate change activist Greta Thunberg and youth representatives from the Global Youth Mobilization will launch the call for applications at a press conference on Monday 19 April 2021 at 1700 CEST.

Children are under siege in South Africa, and we are exposing our glaring failures to them; in schools, and in the homes where they are supposed to find sanctuary and be the safest, adolescent girls of all ages are victims of unspeakable violence.

The COVID-19 pandemic, says Sow, can be overcome only through international collaboration and equitable partnerships. “In the global fight against infectious diseases, a country can never go alone — not even a continent can,” he says.

Africa’s sharp increase in diabetes is clashing with the COVID-19 pandemic and poor access to vaccines.