On June 9, the SDG Lab at UN Geneva in collaboration with the International Labour Organization (ILO) held a high-level discussion platform "COVID-19 X SDGs - Inequalities and Informal Economy" to unpack how COVID-19 is impacting progress towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and what actors are doing to address immediate needs of their citizens while keeping the 2030 SDG horizon in clear view. The online event focused on the many facets of inequalities in responding to the crisis, through the entry point of the informal economy.

EDNews informs that the International Eurasia Press Fund (IEPF), Azerbaijani based international organization with General Consultative Status with UN ECOSOC participated in the online-event and raised an issue referring to the concept of reconstruction for the post-pandemic period prepared by the world’s notable economist, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, Prof. Mohammad Yunus, which highlight the importance of social business development.

The speakers were trying to answer the main question on how organizations and governments are responding to inequalities revealed through the COVID-19 pandemic through the entry point of the informal economy. Representative of four countries – India, Jordan, Portugal and South Africa – spoke about their efforts to address inequalities while maintaining focus on the 2030 Agenda.

Among the key speakers the UN Geneva Director-General Tatiana Valovaya said that the topic about inequality is a very crucial for today.

“As a result of pandemic we see the growing inequalities and we are all afraid that as a result of the pandemic, in the statistics of 2020, many more millions of people going to extreme poverty. The pandemic showed that the inequality is one of the most urgent issues in the agenda. It is important to get together and to look for a solution. We all need a platform where we can share the experience. We have to think not only on how to recover after pandemic, but how to recover better.”

EDNews persents a full speech: