Saadia Sanchez-Vegas | Advancing equitable and inclusive COVID-19 recovery

With Jamaica starting to ease restrictions and entrusting citizens with the responsibility to live with the SARS-CoV-2 virus, it is time to put the spotlight on the efforts of Jamaican and Caribbean stakeholders to engage in planning for public policies geared towards an equitable and inclusive recovery from the socio-economic impact of the pandemic.

In Jamaica, the pandemic has had multidimensional consequences ranging from putting a strain on the country’s healthcare sector to impacting the learning outcomes of more than 600,000 learners, according to the Caribbean Policy Research Institute. In 2020, the gross domestic product fell by roughly 10 per cent in Jamaica, the most significant decline in the country’s history. The pandemic substantially impacted women and increased their burden of care, exacerbating pre-existing inequalities. The COVID-19 response measures also impacted the prevalence of violence against women and girls. Likewise, youth and persons with disabilities have been disproportionately affected by the impact of the pandemic.

Like most crises, the COVID-19 pandemic can be seen as a turning point for a more equitable and inclusive recovery. Thus, it can be used as an opportunity to sustainably strengthen public service delivery and promote social protection systems and inclusive public policies that respect human rights and are evidence-based. This opportunity can also be seized to make the necessary policy adjustments for achieving Vision 2030 in Jamaica as a prime example of a strategic implementation framework towards sustainable development in the Caribbean.

At the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, UNESCO, one of our five global programmes, the Social and Human Sciences sector, strives to enable diverse stakeholders to produce and make meaningful use of whole-of-society social scientific knowledge. We closely work with governments, academia, and civil society organisations (CSOs).

EQUITABLE RECOVERY

In the framework of UNESCO’s project Amplifying the Voice of Caribbean Small Island Developing States (SIDS): Towards an Inclusive Recovery from COVID-19, we joined forces with members of the COVID-19 Task Force at The University of the West Indies, a leading regional knowledge producer. With the task force, we convened a series of ‘Dialogue Sessions’, a platform where a wide cross section of society, including scholars, youth, policymakers, activists, and CSOs, conversed and exchanged ideas on what inclusive and equitable recovery in Caribbean SIDS should entail. The Dialogue Sessions helped identify the barriers and challenges that different groups of people faced and continue to face during the COVID-19 pandemic. The outcomes of these discussions served to formulate policy recommendations and are featured in the joint publication Toward a more inclusive post-COVID recovery: A tool to further the Caribbean policy agenda. The tool will be presented to the public on Thursday, March 31.

UNESCO, within the framework of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, advocates for inclusive, equitable, and just societies and sustainable development grounded on human rights and places human well-being at the centre to ‘leave no one behind’.

To understand the complex challenges of our time and account for the progress made, there is the need to strengthen social science faculties and reinforce collaboration between government and academia to establish robust data systems and improve research and knowledge production led by Caribbean researchers.

Saadia Sanchez-Vegas, PhD, is director and representative, UNESCO Cluster Office for the Caribbean

UNESCO and UWI have the pleasure of inviting you to the virtual launch of the knowledge tool on Thursday, March 31, 2022, 9:30 a.m.-10:30 a.m. (GMT-5:00). Register to join the virtual meeting by contacting Sandrea McLean (sandrea.mclean@uwimona.edu.jm).