Strengthened Resilience of Micro-, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (MSMEs) in Africa and Asia

The need to support countries formulating policies and strategies for MSME resilience has been recognized by the General Assembly resolution A/RES/74/270 . In the Secretary-General’s report ‘Shared responsibility, global solidarity: Responding to the socio-economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic’ , supporting MSMEs is outlined as a focus area to tackle socio-economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Supporting MSMEs and informal workers is also included as one of the five pillars in the…

Recipients: Ethiopia, Zimbabwe, Cambodia, Philippines
Partners: ILO, ITC, UNIDO
Status: Active
Inclusive and sustainable economic growth in a society for all ages in the post-COVID-19 era in Asia and Latin America and the Caribbean.

This project’s objective is to enhance the capacity of governments in the Asia-Pacific and Latin America and Caribbean regions to develop evidence-based, intergenerational policies for inclusive and sustainable economic growth in the context of population ageing. The Secretary-General’s report on Our Common Agenda highlighted the importance of strengthening capacities to understand and assess the future, building long-term intergenerational thinking into important policies and…

Recipients: Jamaica, Costa Rica, Colombia, Uruguay, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Viet Nam, Maldives
Partners: ESCAP, ECLAC, UNFPA, UNRCs
Status: Active
Accelerating universal social protection for achieving the SDGs and ending poverty through strengthened governance and digital transformation

Today more than half of the world’s population has no access to social protection at all. In Lao PDR and Tajikistan exclusion is even larger with, respectively, 87.9 and 73.4 percent of the population with no income security in cases of old age, maternity, unemployment and other life cycle and socioeconomic risks.  Poor governance, lack of integrated policy responses, and insufficient and unsustainable financing of social protection are key issues for a number of countries including Lao PDR…

Recipients: Tajikistan, Lao PDR
Partners: ILO
Donors: China
Status: Active
Strengthening Capacity for evidence-based Social Protection Policies for responding to the triple global crisis in fuel, food and finance

The 2020-2022 World Social Protection Report noted that globally, only 46.9% of the population was effectively covered by at least one social protection benefit, and in Africa and Asia and the Pacific, this is even lower, at 17.4% and 44.1%, respectively. Evidence suggests that countries with better social protection policies and programmes are better at curbing the effects of the Triple Crisis, with overall positive effects on health, education, labour market outcomes, income inequality,…

Recipients: Tanzania, Zambia, Namibia, Senegal, Cambodia, Maldives
Partners: ESCAP, ECA, ILO
Donors: RB
Status: Active