Paris: Tomorrow, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and Cuba will inaugurate an online forum to address with the support of experts the economic, political and health challenges derived from Covid-19 in Latin America and the Caribbean, Prensa Latina publishes.
A statement specified that the general director of Unesco, Audrey Azoulay, and the permanent delegate of the Island to the multilateral entity, Yahima Esquivel, will install the meeting, from which public policy proposals would come out, with emphasis on the reduction of social inequalities.
Employment, care for the most vulnerable, social cohesion and the recovery of health and human well-being would focus the attention of the initiatives expected in a region that is particularly suffering from the scourge of the pandemic.
In addition to the death of more than a quarter of a million people from Covid-19, the viral disease would cause this year a fall in Gross Domestic Product of 9.1 percent, according to projections of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean .
According to the commission, a problem of this nature would mean a decade of decline in per capita income levels in that part of the planet.
The participation of panelists such as the Guatemalan Nobel Peace Prize winner and Unesco Goodwill Ambassador, Rigoberta Menchú, the professor at the University of Coimbra (Portugal) Boaventura de Sousa Santos and the president of the Casa de the Americas and former Minister of Culture of Cuba, Abel Prieto, was announced.
The professor of Sociology at Columbia University Saskia Sassen, the director of the Social Development Division of ECLAC, Simone Cecchini, the secretary of Educational Cooperation and Priority Actions of Argentina, Pablo Gentili, and the professor of Higher National Studies from Ecuador John Antón will also participate.
The deputy director general of Human and Social Sciences of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco), Gabriela Ramos, will close the debate, which will be summarized by the representative of the organization in Guatemala, Julio Carranza.
