Cross-posted from intl-budget@lists.cbpp.org
Dear Colleagues:
As you can see from the letter below, Sanjeev Khagram, the Wyss Visiting Scholar at the Harvard Business School Social Enterprise Program, has been selected by the UN Secretary General to be the lead writer on a comprehensive report on the impact the global financial crisis on the poor and most vulnerable around the world. This report was requested by the G20 and will provide the only in-depth examination of the crisis specifically from the perspective of the poor. In order to produce a report that is comprehensive and meaningful, Sanjeev needs to compile the necessary data, case studies, and relevant analyses. And, as the report is to be launched in September 2009, he needs to gather this information as quickly as possible.
Sanjeev, who is known worldwide for his interdisciplinary and cross-sectoral work bridging theory and practice, is asking for those involved in our work, who may have access to data, studies and stories, and other information on the impacts of the financial crisis on the poor to get in touch with him at skhagram@gan-net.net [this is the address to respond to] as soon as possible. This will be a very valuable report to have available to support our work to advocate for the poor.
Thank you for any assistance you can provide.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Dear Friends,
I am now the lead writer for the flagship report on the impact of the global financial crisis on the most vulnerable that the G20 Leaders have asked the UN SG to assemble for them. Please see the attached two documents on the more specific TOR and the second on the larger GIVAS (global impacts vulnerability assessment system) that is being built so that there is a real-time meta-database of databases for ongoing monitoring of impacts of global crises on the poor.
The flagship report will be launched in September, 2009 by the Secretary General. So as always, the time is short and the data is incredibly patchy and limited...I have access to virtually all the published and grey literature at all the major agencies of the UN, IMF, ILO, World Bank, etc. etc. However, I am reaching out to you to see if you - or through your networks - there are any other data sets, case studies, or rigorous analyses of the impacts on the poor (and the causal mechanisms through which these impacts are occurring), as well as potential innovative/experimental responses that should be highlighted in the report. ALSO CRITICAL IS THE VOICES AND EXPERIENCES OF THE POOR AND VULNERABLE IN THEIR OWN WORDS...
Any broader thoughts on what the main messages of the report should be would also be welcome. Below is a broad outline of the main elements/broad outline of the report.
I would deeply appreciate any information, data, expertize and wisdom you might be able to offer. In the meantime, I remain, sincerely yours,
Sanjeev
This REPORTwould start with the “voices of the poor” and thus would immediately be starkly different from other reports on the global financial crisis. It would then move to household and other types of disaggregated data and analysis and then end with more macro-level data, trends and patterns …ending with key messages and take aways. In essence we are flipping the typical approach to keep the “focus on the poor and most vulnerable.”
SIGNAL MAIN MESSAGES UP FRONT
1. Voices of the Poor – 1/2 page with personal testimonies (A BOX ON perception data from the poor and most vulnerable)
2. A box simply describing a dimensions of poverty and vulnerability analytic framework (poverty and vulnerability is not unidimensional, etc. etc.). – HAZARDS, IMPACTS, RESILIENCE
3. Vignettes of poverty, vulnerability, and coping – 3-5 case stories that would show effects across dimensions of vulnerability and RE-introduce informally key messages – ideally these would give a sense of the “timelines of impacts” and “
4. Disaggregated (dimensions of) impact and vulnerability – household or local-community level or similar types of data that would build on the case stories. – table on categories and dimensions…
5. Aggregated dimensions of impact and vulnerability analysis – moving more up to cross-country and cross-regional trends focusing on macro-economic transmission channels…again building on the case studies and directing towards the key messages
(Box synthesizing work on impacts of previous financial crises?)
6. Conclusions and implications – take away key messages about global financial crisis impacts on poor to date, valued added by this type of report, critical need for GIVAS (box on new data gathering and monitoring systems…) – BEFORE AND AFTER GIVAS…
7. 9 CEP Initiatives – Interventions work novel insights/multiple types of data
This REPORT will FOCUS on and highlight more sharply:
§ who has been most affected and who has been (or will be) least able to cope;
initially most affected who were originally less vulnerable – export sectors…
§ Identify newly emerging (and unexpected) vulnerabilities where these exist; urban working poor, migrants, informal employment
§ how vulnerable communities and populations have been affected (above and beyond their “existing vulnerabilities”) by the economic crisis over the past twelve months;
§ how (and how quickly) global events translate into local impacts and shifting vulnerabilities; this could include a “timeline of impact”; (drops have been dramatic on gdp/capita and employment – much longer to recover …)
§ Explain the overlay and compounding effects of past and current global crises (economic, food, fuel, etc.); and
§ how economic stress factors could translate into increased social, political and even environmental vulnerabilities;
§ Assist decision-makers in understanding the complex interplay of multiple stress factors in the lives of vulnerable communities;
§ how communities have tried to cope with the crisis’ first wave of repercussions;
§ Provide decision-makers with a watch list of issues that need to be urgently addressed to prevent graver consequences in the future.
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Maria Hamlin Zuniga
mailto:maria@mundonica.com