The information is helpful for the state authorities, CSOs, but also for the public.

Labour rights consist of the right to work, which includes the right to the opportunity to gain one’s living by freely chosen or accepted work that is safeguarded by the state. It also includes the right to the enjoyment of just and favourable conditions of work as well as the right to be member of trade unions and engage in collective bargaining. Some aspects of the right to social protection are also interconnected with labour rights.

As a media professional, at all stages of crisis your aim is to be among those who provide important information reaching the highest possible number of people, to help them make adequate decisions regarding the crises, while your focus official data, views of experts, voices of affected people, national and international good practices.

Your aim should be to provide accurate, evidence-based, timely, regular and transparent information at all stages of the crisis or crises. This helps the public to adapt their behavior as required, to participate meaningfully in decisions that may affect them, and to support in identifying gaps that may exist in the state’s response.

WHAT DOES THE RIGHT TO ENJOYMENT OF THE HIGHEST ATTAINABLE STANDARD OF PHYSICAL AND MENTAL HEALTH MEAN?

Persons with disabilities are disproportionately impacted due to attitudinal, environmental and institutional barriers that are reproduced in the COVID-19 response.Persons with disabilities have pre-existing health conditions that make them more susceptible to contracting the virus, experiencing more severe symptoms upon infection, leading to elevated levels of death. Persons with disabilities who are dependent on support for their daily living may find themselves isolated and unable to survive during lockdown measures, while those living in institutions are particularly vulnerable. Persons with disabilities face discrimination and other barriers in accessing livelihood and income support, participating in online forms of education, and seeking protection from violence.

Older persons are at a significantly higher risk of mortality and severe disease following infection. Older persons risk being disproportionately affected by physical distancing measures. Older persons are providing important contributions to the crisis response, including as health workers, caregivers and service providers. Additionally, there was developed a simplified version of the policy brief that describes in a simple to understand language the rights of the older persons during COVID-19.

“All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights”, Universal Declaration of Human Rights.This equality does not change with age: older women and men have the same rights as people younger than they are.

COVID-19 is a global health emergency with immediate as well as longer-term social and economic implications. Human rights based social protection measures represent a critical tool for facilitating access to health care, protecting people against poverty and ensuring the satisfaction of basic economic and social rights, and contributing to the realization of Sustainable Development Goals 1 (target 1.3) and 3 (target 3.8).

Statement of the Joint UN Programmeon HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) Interagency Working Group on Key Populations on the need to ensure access to quality, safe, and non-discriminatory services for HIV key populations and migrants in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic

Although caught by rather surprise and relatively unprepared for the overnight transformation of the education system, the country’s leaders, aided by external partners on the ground, moved quickly to address the challenge. The MECR undertook many activities to ensure that learning continued under the new conditions. MECR, supported by national and international partners, developed a COVID-19 preparedness and response plan, as well as methodologies and regulations for remote education. MECR also launched teachers’ training on remote education, positive parenting and video and TV tutorials for the preparation for the national examinations.

A Human Rights-Based Approach (HRBA) to any intervention, including the Social and Economic Impact Assessment of the COVID-19 Pandemic, entails due attention being given to the international human rights framework that treats all human beings, without discrimination, as rights holders.

Covid-19 will have a considerable socio-economic impact in the Republic of Moldova over the coming years and Moldova’s migration profile will be a deciding factor in this regard.

Shocks reverberate through both supply (disrupted supply chains, containment measures, and lockdown of non-essential economic activities) and demand (lower consumption of goods and services due to declining household incomes, restriction of movements, and uncertainty). Covid-19 has far-reaching impacts on labour market outcomes. A dramatic and sudden loss of demand and revenue for SMEs and disruptions along supply chains affects their ability to function, and/or causes severe liquidity shortages with impacts on wages and severe drops in capacity utilization. Significant rise in unemployment and underemployment is inevitable in the wake of the virus. The ILO estimates that impact of Covid-19 may result in a rise in global unemployment up to 24.7 million (“high” scenario). It is difficult to quantify the economic and labour market fallout of the crisis at this point and overarching impact assessments are crucial at an earlier post-crisis stage.

It constitutes around 18% of GDP and 50% of total exports originate in agriculture and food products. Covid-19 outbreak in Moldova is having a negative impact on agriculture production and processing, farmers’ income and access to inputs. Currently, the main affected sectors are vegetable, cereal and berry production, as well as animal feeding. At the same time, the most impacted group of producers are smallholder farmers who have insufficient financial resources and inputs. The planting season of cereals started, but it is progressing slowly due to lack of some inputs and low level of precipitations. At least 200 small and medium greenhouse vegetable growers face significant issues marketing and selling their products (cucumbers, radish, tomatoes etc.) as the local markets have been closed due to government lockdown measures and they lack access to supermarket chains. Export of agri-food products to some traditional partner countries (e.g. Russian Federation) was suspended as the authorities from importing countries do not issue the relevant certificates. There is also a significant impact due the Covid-19 pandemic on poultry sector during March-April as this is the season for chicks production and sales. The loss for a two-week period is estimated at about 112 million lei.

National COVID-19 policy response strategies and containment measures put in place to prevent the spread of the virus such as quarantines, travel restrictions and closures of international borders severely affected demand and supply of goods and services along the global value chains disrupting numerous industrial processes and models, and putting many businesses at risk of insolvencies. The containment measures in advanced economies have already started impacting less developed countries through decreased manufacturing production, trade volumes and investment flows. The United Nations (UN) report that supply chain disruptions halting the global manufacturing industry, compounded with the falling commodity prices, in particular oil, have already resulted in USD 50 billion decrease in manufacturing production in February 2020. This is bound to negatively impact developing countries’ export volumes.

The Environmental degradation is posing a major threat to Moldova’s development agenda. The country remains highly exposed to environmental issues, mostly because of its high dependence on the agricultural sector and the scarcity and overexploitation of natural resources in the country. The economic cost of environmental degradation and climate change is considerable. In addition, water and air pollution have significant health impacts. The limited capacity of the environment sector to make the case for the environment and to link it with development, means that environmental protection is still not seen as a priority and is severely underfinanced. The environment is also not perceived to be an important driver of growth. There is a need to further highlight the benefits of environmental protection, as well as the links between economic development and environmental management.

The COVID-19 pandemic has put the spotlight on country’s capabilities and preparedness to act in crisis situations. It has also revealed disproportionate social and economic impacts of COVID-19 outbreak in rural and urban areas, and specifically on those who are already vulnerable and marginalized. Despite the challenges revealed, this pandemic offers a very important opportunity to elaborate more on root causes of crisis phenomena, modernize national approaches to tackle crisis, as well as to start developing resilience, response and recovery mechanisms to all crises and risks, including eminent climate induced extreme weather risks.

As COVID-19 hit the Republic of Moldova in spring of 2020, it forced the Government to introduce a set of restrictions and lockdown measures to contain the outbreak. These measures aimed at dealing with a public health crisis with a profound effect on the public life and economic development of the country – changing the way people move around, socialize and go to work. The virus had a two-fold impact, first of all it showed the existing information and data silos in the public sector that prevented access to crucial insights and evidences to better manage the crisis. Secondly, once the effects of the pandemic have been felt across the society, there was no available data to understand and adequately evaluate the socio-economic impact of this unprecedented modern emergency.

As self-isolation restrictions have been relaxed, we should rethink the design of public spaces to ensure that areas which are likely to have high footfall are safe for the public.The COVID-19 era will call the Governments to utilize of all available data – both conventional (administrative and statistical data) and/or alternative (big data, thick data, citizen-generated data of other organizations) – to better understand the uncertainties and trends posed by the pandemic. Due to the high speed at which COVID-19 has evolved, and the lag time between data collection and integration of these data into policy design, some datasets will lose their value, while others can be misleading, leading to mistaken conclusions and policy options. During the pandemic, some Governments applied dynamic data responses to track the spread of COVID-19 and measure the economic and social impacts.

Governments have seen their priorities shift overnight towards upscaling public-health preparedness and emergency support measures to cater to the vulnerable segments of their population. The challenges facing Governments are further complicated by supply-chain disruptions that have left enterprises struggling to survive. Pay cuts and furloughs have become an increasing trend, so that the losses in lives are compounded by a livelihood crisis.

The socio-economic impact assessment of COVID-19 in the Republic of Moldova is led by UNDP, conducted with UNFPA, in collaboration with the State Chancellery and in close consultations with the rest of UN System organizations. PwC is the contracted partner, to conduct this study with focus on the most vulnerable groups and most affected business sectors. As part of the UN’s response to the pandemic, UNDP Moldova is leading a UNDP Task Team on Socio-Economic Impact, which aims to support the Government, donor community and wider audience in assessing the immediate and projecting the medium-term and long-term impact of the COVID-19 outbreak.

The thematic paper is an analysis of the thick data, referred to as micro-narratives, about the impact of COVID-19 on the communities of Moldova in the period March-August 2020. The paper reflects on the main challenges encountered by people during the COVID-19 period and their perception of the challenges. The paper analyses the patterns arising from 300 real stories collected and suggests possible directions of support to meet the needs of vulnerable people and communities in times of crisis.

This publication provides insights from the monitoring of the air quality and the impact of COVID-19 on the air quality in the Republic of Moldova and Ukraine.

This publication provides monitoring of the agricultural product and the estimation of the impact of COVID-19 on Moldovan agricultural practices.