MESSAGE

 UNDP RESIDENT REPRESENTATIVE, DENISE E ANTONIO

Ready Reset Recharge: Students Re-Imagine Their Future in the Era of COVID-19. Mon 6 July 2020

A Webinar series exploration of the special human development report, COVID-19 AND HUMAN DEVELOPMENT: Assessing the Crisis, Envisioning the Recovery

Team ‘Ready Reset Recharge’! Good afternoon

I am delighted to join you at the start of your five-day webinar series as you contemplate your individual and collective responses to the COVID-19 crisis. It is clear that you are ready to navigate the reimagined world; ready to reset expectations and plans where required; and charged with renewed energy for the opportunities that await.

In December 2019 when I communicated my vision for an unprecedented student exploration of UNDP’s Human Development Report (HDR), it was to create platforms for frank and open exchange of ideas by young people given the pivotal role you have to play in the future. You are at the heart of development. In fact, the Planning Institute of Jamaica has indicated that persons of working age (15-64) make up the largest segment of Jamaica’s population. It is important that young people take part in shaping the future.

I commend the Steering Committee and its dynamic student members, so ably supported by SALISES and UNDP for a robust and exciting agenda that will help us uncover the meaning behind the numbers of UNDP’s special report, COVID-19 AND HUMAN DEVELOPMENT: Assessing the Crisis, Envisioning the Recovery. The report, issued in early June, tells us that (1) Shocks and Crises, such as epidemics, Climate Change and Natural Hazards disproportionately impacts vulnerable groups; (2) that many lack access to the internet, impairing education outcomes; (3) that losses in income for workers particularly those in the informal sector are likely to worsen their state of poverty unless they are quickly supported to adopt key skills and capabilities.

Your deliberations this week - on jobs of the future; leveraging your networks to address shocks and crises; and getting all young people online for enhanced learning - is spot on for addressing the key issues in UNDP’s special report on COVID. As you consider solutions, I urge you to consider the report’s prescriptions for recovery which includes reducing inequalities; enhancing people’s capabilities to overcome the crises they face, and ensuring your solutions are multidimensional. I am confident that your deliberations will benefit many young people. I wish you all the best as you move into ‘Ready Reset Recharge’ mode fully poised to triumph over the COVID crisis and help to make Jamaica the place of choice to live, work, raise families and do business. All the best.