Public Health
Structural asymmetries and the health crisis: the imperative of a transformative recovery for the advancement of sustainable development in Latin America and the Caribbean
This article underscores the pressing need to transition to a new development model in Latin America and the Caribbean as the region strives to cope with the current health emergency. Statistics show that the Latin American and Caribbean region has been hit harder by the pandemic than any other and that it has also sustained the most damage in economic and social terms. This is attributable to long-standing structural factors that set the stage for the emergence of its present dysfunctional development pattern. The region grew by a scant 0.4% per year between 2014 and 2019 against the backdrop of a widening external productivity gap, deepening structural heterogeneity, low-productivity development paths and a declining share of wages in GDP. All this has eroded its social and economic development process. The economic reactivation effort must therefore be based on a package of coordinated, ambitious structural reforms in the areas of production, fiscal policy and institutional affairs in order to forge an inclusive and sustainable development style.
A “new normal” as a “new essential”? COVID-19, digital transformations and employment structures
This paper explores the new policy challenges that have emerged as a result of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. The “new normal” should acknowledge the “new essential” in terms of jobs and sectors. First, the paper examines the trade-off between health policies and anti-recessionary policies. It studies the economic impact of lockdown on households and firms and, relatedly, the slowdown in global value chain-related trade. It the examines lessons that can be learned from this crisis in areas that were topical before the outbreak and are likely to be even more so after it. These include the need to steer digital transformation so as to minimize negative impacts on jobs and sectors while reflecting critically on their “essentiality” and the need for concerted policy action to ensure good governance of health data.
Close-Up: Byblos and COVID-19
Byblos in Lebanon is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world, founded some 8,900 years ago.
Nouvelles: Préservation
Des incendies sans précédent se déclarent dans le Pantanal, menaçant de nombreuses espèces menacées et l’écosystème de grande valeur. Le fonds d’intervention d’urgence, une initiative conjointe de l’UNESCO et de Fauna and Flora International (FFI), soutient les activités de lutte contre les incendies dans la réserve de la biosphère du Pantanal afin d’empêcher les incendies de se propager jusqu’au site du patrimoine mondial de la zone de conservation du Pantanal.
Primer Plano: La conservación de los tesoros naturales del mundo
El año 2020 estaba destinado a ser un “súper año” de decisiones sobre la biodiversidad del planeta. Expertos y científicos de todo el mundo, así como miembros de ONGs y muchos gobiernos, realizan cada diez años un importante examen conceptual y análisis de los resultados y conclusiones establecidos por las partes en el Convenio sobre la Diversidad Biológica (CDB) para ese período. Este año, por lo tanto, se pretende determinar las políticas y estrategias que se aplicarán hasta 2030. El objetivo a largo plazo es que para el 2050 la humanidad viva en armonía con la naturaleza. Tal al menos es nuestra esperanza.
Nouvelles: Préservation
Plus de 130 ministres et vice-ministres de la culture ont participé à la réunion en ligne, le 22 avril 2020, organisée par l’UNESCO pour discuter des actions destinées à soutenir le secteur de la culture, qui fait face à des bouleversements sans précédents liés à l’impact de la pandémie de COVID-19. Les ministres ont évoqué les effets directs de la crise actuelle sur le tourisme, les musées, la production culturelle et les artistes, ainsi que les mesures engagées pour atténuer l’impact de la crise. Ils ont réaffirmé leur engagement en faveur du dialogue intergouvernemental et de la solidarité internationale afin de renforcer et d’unir leurs efforts.
Advisory Bodies
The new decade marks an unprecedented time for the conservation community, and indeed the whole world. New targets for safeguarding nature, our planet’s life-support system, will be determined through the development of the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework. What we do in the next ten to twenty years will undoubtedly set the course of humanity and the planet for generations to come.
Conventions
With the COVID-19 lockdown causing disruptions to the practice and transmission of living heritage, many communities have sought new ways to safeguard this heritage in the context of the pandemic.
Sitios en Peligro
La Directora General de la UNESCO, Audrey Azoulay, condenó enérgicamente el asesinato de dos empleados del Instituto Congolés para la Conservación de la Naturaleza (ICCN) el 17 de septiembre de 2020. El ataque ocurrió en el puesto Adusa de la entrada de la Reserva de fauna de Okapis, sitio inscrito en la Lista del Patrimonio Mundial de la UNESCO en la República Democrática del Congo.
La réserve de faune du Dja : les diverses représentations sociales d’un trésor naturel
La Réserve de faune du Dja (RFD) est la seule aire protégée du Cameroun jouissant d’un triple statut : réserve de faune, réserve de biosphère et site du patrimoine mondial. Ces trois statuts confèrent au Dja une certaine particularité et le soumettent de fait au respect des exigences du Programme sur l’homme et la biosphère (MAB) et de la Convention concernant la protection du patrimoine mondial, culturel et naturel, ou Convention du patrimoine mondial.
In Focus: Youth and World Heritage
In 2019, there were about 1.2 billion young people – age 15 to 24 – in the world, making up nearly 16 per cent of the global population. UNESCO has long worked with the conviction that the voice of young people matters in shaping a better future, especially at a time when we have to rethink radically the way we deal with our multifaceted heritage and its challenges.
Focus: La culture, un besoin vital en temps de crise
Aujourd’hui, nous sommes confrontés à une crise mondiale comme jamais nous n’avons connu. Des milliers de personnes ont perdu la vie à cause de la COVID-19 et beaucoup d’autres ont été infectées. Des milliards de personnes sont aujourd’hui confinées à la maison dans le monde entier. Ceux qui ne peuvent pas travailler de chez eux - médecins, infirmières, personnel d’urgence, ceux qui travaillent pour assurer les services essentiels dans les supermarchés et dans les pharmacies, et le personnel d’entretien, pour n’en citer que quelques-uns - mettent leur vie en danger chaque jour pour nous garder en sécurité et en bonne santé. Les systèmes de santé, même dans les pays les plus riches, sont mis à rude épreuve sous la pression de cette pandémie mondiale. Sur le plan économique, social et psychologique, il est probable que l’impact de la COVID-19 se fera sentir bien longtemps après la fin de cette crise sanitaire.
The French Austral Lands and Seas Biodiversity haven in the Southern Ocean
Situated between the 37th and 50th southern parallels, the French Austral Lands and Seas encompass the largest of the few emerged landmasses in the southern Indian Ocean, including the Crozet Archipelago, the Kerguelen Islands and the islands of Saint-Paul and Amsterdam. These territories come under the Terres australes et antarctiques françaises (TAAF), a French overseas administration created in 1955, which exercises missions of sovereignty, preservation of the environment, support for research and supervision of sustainable fisheries. In 2019, these islands, together with their protected maritime zone that constitutes the national nature reserve of the French Austral Lands, became the 50th marine site inscribed on the World Heritage List.
Comunidades
Hasta ahora, el patrimonio cultural ha pertenecido a unos pocos elegidos.
Foro: Entrevista
In Danger
UNESCO condemns the deadly attack carried out on the morning of 10 January 2021 in Virunga National Park, Democratic Republic of Congo. Rangers on patrol within the park were ambushed near Kabuendo; six men were killed and one man was injured. UNESCO wishes to pay tribute to them and to express its sincere condolences to their families and colleagues.
Why the rich always stay rich (no matter what, no matter the cost)
This article returns to the Ricardian tradition of understanding income distribution as the outcome of an “antagonistic” conflict with a multiplicity of actors and struggles, where history, politics and institutions matter as much as economic “fundamentals”. Because this relates to the political sphere, there are no purely logical solutions to the conflict, but rather options in a scenario of multiple equilibria. In deregulated markets, this conflict favours the supremacy of unproductive rent (especially those of “inefficiency”), to the detriment of operating profits, affecting investment and productivity growth. Moreover, dysfunctional institutions have the “ability to persist”, thus transforming the domination into a “stationary process”: the unbalancing impacts of shocks have only limited lifespans. When, in democracy, the Latin American oligarchy limits change and weakens the State through Buchanian-style constitutional straitjackets, they redesign their distributional strategies and absorb elements of opposing ideologies to keep their own hegemonic.
COVID-19 and social protection of poor and vulnerable groups in Latin America: A conceptual framework
The growing crisis caused by the coronavirus disease pandemic has dire implications for Latin American societies. As is often the case, the most vulnerable sectors of society —especially those living in extreme poverty— are being hit the hardest. This article identifies strategies and specific responses designed to achieve three goals: (i) reduce epidemiological risks to save lives; (ii) protect livelihoods; and (iii) ensure human capital accumulation. Epidemiological externalities, as well as humanitarian concerns, demand universal social inclusion. In order to protect the lives, health, livelihoods and human capital of the poor and vulnerable, it will be essential to: implement targeted and decisive interventions at the local level that go beyond transferring cash; allocate adequate resources to fund income support and other key interventions; and involve on local actors and grass-roots organizations for the interventions to be effective.
Promotion
Trente-deux jeunes professionnels de 17 pays de la région des États arabes se sont réunis à Tunis, en Tunisie, du 2 au 6 décembre 2019 pour participer au Forum des jeunes professionnels du patrimoine mondial arabe.
Site manager profiles
The COVID-19 pandemic has had a major impact on World Heritage sites around the world. At one point in April 2020, sites were entirely or partially closed in 90 per cent of countries, with grave consequences for the communities living in and around them. Financial losses were heavy due to the standstill of tourism. Without entrance fees into sites, visitor centres and museums, and an absence of clients for accommodation, restaurants and local cultural industries, the World Heritage properties and the communities around them suffered a substantial reduction of income.
Informe Especial: La UNESCO y labiodiversidad: Crear armonía
La biodiversidad es el tejido vivo de nuestro planeta. Es la base del bienestar humano tanto en el presente como en el futuro, y su rápido declive amenaza a la naturaleza y a las personas por igual. Según el primer informe intergubernamental sobre la biodiversidad mundial publicado en 2019 por la Plataforma intergubernamental científico-normativa sobre diversidad biológica y servicios de los ecosistemas (IPBES), los principales factores mundiales que impulsan la pérdida de la biodiversidad son el cambio climático, las especies invasoras, la sobreexplotación de los recursos naturales, la contaminación y la urbanización. Es necesario abordar al mismo tiempo los generadores de cambio directos como los indirectos, también los valores y comportamientos sociales para detener la erosión de la diversidad biológica.
ONG et militants
Jusqu’au milieu des années 1990, pas un seul espace naturel de la Fédération de Russie n’était inscrit sur la liste du patrimoine mondial.
News: Preservation
Between 24 November and 8 December 2020, satellite collars were placed on 25 elephants and 14 antelopes in the Pendjari national park in Benin and the W national park in Niger. The initiative will increase monitoring capacity and help protect these species in the two national parks, which are components of the W-Arly-Pendjari Complex World Heritage site (Benin, Burkina Faso and Niger). Aimed at safeguarding the property’s Outstanding Universal Value, the collar operation was the largest regional initiative to date in the vast cross-border complex.
Yancheng : un sanctuaire pour les bécasseaux spatules
La marée monte rapidement. Des dizaines de milliers d’oiseaux de rivage se pressent sur les vasières exposées, s’éloignant toujours plus loin de la mer pour se masser sur les derniers mètres avant que la marée haute ne recouvre l’intégralité de la plage. Au premier plan se trouvent les vedettes du spectacle : parmi les bécasseaux variables, les pluviers et autres limicoles, on distingue un petit nombre d’oiseaux curieux et précieux, les minuscules bécasseaux spatules. Reconnaissables à leur bec en forme de cuillère et à un comportement alimentaire particulièrement nerveux, ils ne sont plus que quelques centaines d’individus à travers le monde. Soudain, toute la nuée s’envole, virevolte en un nuage éblouissant, puis file vers l’intérieur des terres et les zones de repos à marée haute, pour y attendre les heures nécessaires au reflux marin.
Outreach
Thanks to the German Commission’s support of UNESCO’s #SOSAfricanHeritage Fund, seven World Heritage sites from five Eastern African countries have received grants to help withstand the COVID-19 pandemic’s disruptive impact on management and conservation.
Réflexion sur la crise Lieux du patrimoine mondial, musées et interprétation du patrimoine
La COVID-19 a touché l’humanité entière d’une manière sans précédent. Elle a perturbé tous les aspects de notre vie politique, sociale, culturelle et économique, et les zones protégées et les lieux patrimoniaux n’ont pas été épargnés.
Primer Plano: La Juventud y el Patrimonio Mundial
En 2019, había alrededor de 1.200 millones de jóvenes -de 15 a 24 años de edad- en el mundo, que representaban casi el 16% de la población mundial.
In Focus: Preserving the world’s natural treasures
The year 2020 was intended to be a ‘super year’ of decisions for the planet’s biodiversity. Experts and scientists from around the world, as well as members of NGOs and many governments, make an important conceptual review and analysis every ten years of the results and conclusions established by the parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity for that period. This year, therefore, policies and strategies to be implemented until 2030 were meant to be determined. The longterm goal is that by 2050 humanity will be living in harmony with nature – that is the hope!
Sitios en Peligro
La UNESCO expresa su profunda preocupación con respecto al ataque mortal perpetrado en la mañana del 10 de enero de 2021 en el Parque Nacional de Virunga, República Democrática del Congo. Los guardas forestales que patrullaban dentro del parque cayeron en una emboscada cerca de Kabuendo; seis hombres murieron y uno resultó herido. La UNESCO desea rendirles homenaje y expresar sus sinceras condolencias a sus familias y colegas.
Outreach
The artwork displayed here was posted in response to a global call for the Little Artists Exhibition, inviting children around the world to draw a UNESCO World Heritage site that matters to them. This could be a site in their community, a memory from a family vacation, or a place they saw in a book, movie or television show.
Administradores de sitios
La pandemia del COVID-19 ha tenido un gran impacto en los sitios del Patrimonio Mundial en todo el mundo. En un momento dado, en abril de 2020, se cerraron total o parcialmente sitios en el 90% de los países, con graves consecuencias para las comunidades que viven en ellos y sus alrededores.
Hyper-fortunes and the super-rich: Why a wealth tax makes sense
This article proposes a model to estimate the wealth of the richest groups in society and to design an efficient wealth tax system. For design and implementation issues, it reviews comparative international experience and provides an analytical discussion of the effects of a wealth tax, reviewing the main criticisms that orthodox economists have levelled against it. The methodology used to calculate wealth involves first-order approximations and Pareto criteria to compensate for data shortcomings. This article also presents a tax system which corrects the problems that have arisen when implementing this type of tax in other countries. The model is applied to the reality of Chile, which, like other countries in the region, suffers from structural inequality in both income and wealth, which has been amplified by the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Building pro-development multilateralism: Towards a “New” New International Economic Order
This paper explains how a “New” New International Economic Order (NNIEO) may be emerging from the slowly crumbling neoliberal international economic order that came into being in the 1980s and 1990s. First, it examines how the neoliberal order has been fading and is being reshaped in the wake of the decline of the multilateral international trading system (embodied by the World Trade Organization (WTO)) and the 2008 global financial crisis. It then discusses how recent changes in the world economy and in prevailing ideas, together with a number of contingent factors—such as climate change, the rise of China and the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) crisis— are making the emergence of an NNIEO more likely, while recognizing that some factors may hinder progress towards it.
Territorios y mares australes franceses, un santuario de biodiversidad en el corazón del Océano Austral
Situadas entre los paralelos 37° y 50° sur, los Territorios y mares australes franceses abarcan la mayor de las raras tierras emergidas en el Océano Índico meridional, incluido el archipiélago de Crozet, las islas Kerguelen y las islas de San Pablo y Amsterdam. Estos territorios forman parte de las Terres australes et antarctiques françaises (TAAF), una colectividad francesa de ultramar creada en 1955, que ejerce en estos lugares misiones de soberanía, de preservación del medio ambiente, de apoyo a la investigación y de supervisión de la pesca sostenible. En 2019, estas islas y su zona marítima protegida, que constituyen la Reserva natural nacional de los Territorios australes franceses, se convirtieron en el 50º sitio marino de la Lista del Patrimonio Mundial.
Accessing World Heritage sites from home Digital technologies for remote interpretation and monitoring
Digital technologies are proving to be a key component in dealing with the current Coronavirus pandemic worldwide. World Heritage sites raise unique concerns. How can digital technologies be applied to support remote access for staff and visitors, site monitoring and risk reduction while access is limited, and, eventually, ensure safe re-entry to these important places? The World Heritage Convention is the most powerful international instrument that integrates the concepts of nature conservation and the preservation of cultural properties in a single document.
Advisory Bodies
People make heritage, value heritage and take care of heritage. As much as we put importance on creating heritage and identifying its significance, the stages which lead to the inscription of a site to the World Heritage List, the action of protecting and managing a heritage place is truly the focus and objective of the World Heritage Convention.
Noticias: Preservación
Entre el 24 de noviembre y el 12 de diciembre de 2020, se colocaron collares satélites a 25 elefantes y 14 antílopes en el Parque nacional del Pendjari de Benin y en el Parque nacional W de Níger. La iniciativa aumentará la capacidad de vigilancia y ayudará a proteger estas especies en ambos parques nacionales, que son componentes del sitio del patrimonio mundial del Complejo W-Arly-Pendjari (Benin, Burkina Faso y Níger). Con el fin de salvaguardar el Valor Universal Excepcional (VUE) del sitio, la operación de collar fue, hasta la fecha, la mayor iniciativa regional en el vasto complejo transfronterizo.
In Danger
The Director-General of UNESCO Audrey Azoulay strongly condemned the murder of two employees of the Congolese Institute for the Conservation of Nature (ICCN) on 17 September 2020. The attack occurred at the Adusa post of the entrance to the Okapi Wildlife Reserve, a property inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Communities
Until now, cultural heritage has belonged to a select few. The term ‘cultural heritage’ has been used to recognize the value of heritage that is ancient, monumental, or created by the powerful and wealthy, and whose stakeholders are limited in the main to owners, governments and learned experts.
Focus: Biblos en tiempos del COVID-19
Biblos, en el Líbano, es una de las ciudades continuamente habitadas más antiguas del mundo, fundada hace unos 8.900 años.
Organisations consultatives
Alors que le monde entier continue de lutter contre la pandémie de COVID-19, l’Union internationale pour la conservation de la nature (UICN) souhaite exprimer sa solidarité envers toutes les personnes déjà directement touchées par le virus dans le monde. Nos pensées vont à toutes les populations vulnérables, en particulier celles souffrant déjà des ravages de la dégradation environnementale, dont beaucoup ne disposent que d’un accès limité à des soins de santé adéquats pour des raisons financières ou géographiques.
Close-Up: UNESCO and biodiversity: creating harmony
Biodiversity is the living fabric of our planet. It underpins human well-being in the present and in the future, and its rapid decline threatens nature and people alike. According to the first intergovernmental global biodiversity report released in 2019 by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), the main global drivers of biodiversity loss are climate change, invasive species, overexploitation of natural resources, pollution and urbanization. Both direct drivers and indirect ones such as social values and behaviours need to be addressed at the same time to halt biodiversity erosion.
Convenciones
Con el cierre del COVID-19 causando trastornos en la práctica y la transmisión del patrimonio vivo, muchas comunidades han buscado nuevas formas de salvaguardar este patrimonio en el contexto de la pandemia.
The COVID-19 crisis and the structural problems of Latin America and the Caribbean: Responding to the emergency with a long-term perspective
The economies of Latin America and the Caribbean have been slipping behind in the global economy, weighed down by structural problems that hinder their capacity to grow and absorb technology. The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has not only brought these structural problems into sharper relief, but has also exacerbated them, by reinforcing adverse trends in growth, employment and income distribution. This article analyses these trends and argues that the crisis requires a response that is both immediate but also aims to overcome long-term constraints. Very robust fiscal policies are needed to sustain aggregate demand; and such policies need a substantial investment component aimed at building technological capacities, increasing diversification and strengthening linkages in the production matrix.
Órganos Consultivos
La nueva década marca un momento sin precedentes para la comunidad de la conservación, y de hecho para todo el mundo. Nuevos objetivos para salvaguardar la naturaleza, el sistema de apoyo a la vida de nuestro planeta, serán establecidos mediante la elaboración del Marco Mundial para la Diversidad Biológica posterior a 2020. Porque lo que hagamos en los próximos diez a veinte años sin duda marcará el rumbo de la humanidad y del planeta para las generaciones venideras.
Gestionnaires de sites
En 2015, l’agente forestière Jacqueline Andre est devenue cheffe de l’unité des parcs nationaux au sein de la division des forêts, de la faune et des parcs du Commonwealth de la Dominique, qui comprend la responsabilité du site du patrimoine mondial du Parc national de Morne Trois Pitons.
Dossier: Préserver les trésors naturels du monde
L’année 2020 devait être une « super année » en matière de décisions à prendre pour protéger la biodiversité de la planète. Des experts et des scientifiques du monde entier, ainsi que des représentants d’ONG et de nombreux gouvernements, procèdent en effet tous les 10 ans à un important examen conceptuel et analytique des résultats et des conclusions établis par les parties à la Convention sur la diversité biologique pour cette période. Cette année devait donc définir les politiques et stratégies à mettre en oeuvre jusqu’en 2030. L’objectif à long terme étant qu’en 2050, l’humanité vive en harmonie avec la nature. C’est du moins ce que l’on espère !