Participation of the PABSEC International Secretariat to the OECD Webinar Emerging from COVID-19 and Building Back Better: Essential Reforms for a More Resilient, Sustainable, and Inclusive Economic Recovery, 8 June 2021
Mr. Miltiadis Makrygiannis, PABSEC Deputy Secretary General, attended the Webinar titled " Emerging from COVID-19 and Building Back Better: Essential Reforms for a More Resilient, Sustainable, and Inclusive Economic Recovery", organized by the Organization of Economic and Cooperation Development (OECD), on 8 June 2021.
The participants, among them several academicians, experts, officers of international organizations and parliamentarians, discussed the latest economic outlook for the U.S. and major economies and debated on the labour market impacts of the pandemic and the implications for social and economic inequality. The session also discussed the economic policies needed for economic recovery, throughout the OECD.
With vaccination rates climbing and pandemic-related restrictions being eased in the U.S., the European Union, and other major economies, countries are figuring out what a return to “normal” looks like. However, COVID-19 has exacerbated existing inequalities among social, ethnic, and racial groups. In the United States and other countries, colored people have been disproportionately affected, whether in terms of lives lost, higher unemployment and economic hardship, or even by being left out of vaccine rollouts.
It has been pointed that the pandemic has also highlighted a lack of resilience on several fronts including in supply chains, uneven access to social safety nets, and climate change. Building back better will mean making structural and systemic changes to tackle pre-existing weaknesses, as well as those arising from the pandemic. Governments need to act now to address the structural obstacles to growth, build resilience and sustainability; boost productivity and facilitate reallocation; and help people achieve a just and inclusive recovery.