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EU COVID-19 recovery plan must lead the way towards Sustainable, Green and Inclusive Economies and Societies
By: SDG Watch
Countries: Other
Topics: - Other -
Document type: Briefing note
Let this be a Wake-up Call: Our System is the Problem! We need a paradigm shift
The COVID-19 pandemic is challenging our way of life to an unprecedented degree and has uncovered the
weaknesses of our globalised economic system. It has exposed the failures of the neoliberal policies and more
than three decades of public sector privatisation and underfunding. We now clearly see the serious implications
of a privatised, profit-oriented health system, the structures of dependence in the global value chains, the hardship of
people working in precarious jobs, of women taking on unpaid, invisible care work, or the missing financial safety
net for a generation of freelancers. Many vulnerable groups such as migrants, refugees, ethnic minorities, including
Roma, people with disabilities, homeless people and others have never had equal access to employment and
face higher exposure to unemployment and poverty. The International Labour Organisation estimated that the crisis
would wipe out the equivalent of 195 million full-time jobs in the second quarter of 2020. Our current system destroys the environment by polluting the air, water, and soil, and exploiting resources and material, leaving more than 10 percent of the global population in extreme poverty, with many vulnerable groups disproportionately highly
impacted. Let this crisis be a wake-up call to recognise the devastation our economic system brings to people,
societies and the planet. More than ever, we need a system change. Building back the old economies is nothing but a
recipe for further crises.