Webinar: Strengthening Frameworks to Leave No One Behind During COVID-19 and Beyond

Leveraging Policy Data and Harmonized Survey Data to Protect Health and Economic Security: Strengthening Frameworks to Leave No One Behind During COVID-19 and Beyond  webinar takes place on Friday 9 October at 13:00 UK time, featuring PSE's Professor David Gordon on the speaking panel.

COVID-19 has eroded progress towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and governments around the world are passing policies to respond to the threat of the virus at a rapid rate. As policymakers, civil society, international government organizations, and others respond to the on-going crisis, evidence-based tools are needed to ensure that action at scale supports rather than erodes progress towards achieving the SDGs.  Panelists include:

  • (Chair) Dr. Jody Heymann, the Founding Director of the WORLD Policy Analysis Center, and Distinguished Professor at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health, Luskin School of Public Affairs, and Geffen School of Medicine.
  • Dr. David Gordon, Professor of Social Justice, Director of the Townsend Centre for International Poverty Research and Director of the Bristol Poverty Institute at the University of Bristol. 
  • Dr. Arijit Nandi, Canada Research Chair in the Political Economy of Global Health,  Associate Professor at McGill University, Interim Director at the Institute for Health and Social Policy, Epidemiology Program Director at the Department of Epidemiology, Biostatistics.
  • Amy Raub, Principal Research Analyst at the WORLD Policy Analysis Center, Amy Raub is responsible for the translation of WORLD’s comparative policy research on all 193 UN countries to findings for policymakers, citizens, civil society, and researchers

This interactive panel will feature findings from a range of studies that highlight how data can be leveraged both to respond to the urgent threat of COVID-19, including by: 

  • Identifying gaps in laws and policies that matter to protecting health and economic security during the pandemic: Paid sick leave is critical to reducing disease spread during the pandemic by enabling workers to follow public health advice and stay home from the first sign of illness.  While nearly all countries have some form of national paid sick leave, 58% of countries exclude self-employed workers which includes some of the world’s most vulnerable workers in the informal economy.
  • Highlighting key vulnerabilities during the pandemic: Physical distancing and frequent handwashing are central to combatting COVID-19, but these recommendations are unrealistic for the 1 billion people living in slums and 780 million people without access to an improved water source.  Identifying where innovative approaches to combatting disease spread are needed is a first step to accelerating progress towards more effective solutions.
  • Providing rigorous evidence to support continued investment in the essentials: During the pandemic, resource constraints are forcing governments to make tough choices about investments. New data and econometric methods allow policymakers to better weigh long-term benefits against short-term costs of policies at scale. For example, in a study of 300,000 live births in 20 LMICs, each additional month of paid maternity leave was associated with 7.9 fewer infant deaths per 1,000 live births, reflecting a 13% relative reduction.

Participants will learn more about the open access interactive tools that are available to advance evidence-based policy decisions across health, education, poverty, work, disability, childhood, family, and equal rights.  Participants will have an opportunity to ask critical questions to learn how comparable indicators of national action on policy are constructed, how poverty and other outcomes can be measured comparatively across countries, or how these methods can be applied to tackle challenges at scale in other areas.

Logistical Details:

Space is limited, RSVP HERE

Tweet this page