Overview : During the month of March 2020, the spread of Covid-19 has generated an international public health crisis that will have a strong impact for the economies of countries worldwide. A rise in the number of daily confirmed cases of the new coronavirus internationally has led the World Health Organization (WHO) to declare its spread a global pandemic. With an increasing number of affected countries, the COVID-19 outbreak is a new potential source of volatility, a threat to the macroeconomic stability and disrupting factor in terms of jobs and livelihoods of the people in the LAC region. Countries with fragile economies, lack of social protection mechanisms or weak health installed capacities to protect their most vulnerable citizens face the hardest challenges. Furthermore, most countries in the region are implementing serious containment measures to, amongst other things, reduce mobility and keep people in temporary isolation. These measures are already having an impact on economic activity and will affect more people who are already in a vulnerable situation. For this reason, the UNDP country offices are producing initial assessment notes on the impact of the crisis with focus on the vulnerable population. In the cases required, a consultant with the necessary expertise is to be hired to analyze the situation in the current economic scenario and prepare evidence-based proposals that respond to the global emergency in a localized manner and according to the national context. |