The United Nations response to the COVID-19 pandemic has been led by its Secretary-General and can be divided into formal resolutions at the General Assembly and at the Security Council (UNSC), and operations via its specialized agencies and chiefly the World Health Organization in the initial stages, but involving more humanitarian-oriented agencies as the humanitarian impact became clearer, and then economic organizations, like the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, the International Labour Organization, and the World Bank, as the socioeconomic implications worsened. In June 2020, the Secretary-General launched the 'UN Comprehensive Response to COVID-19'; the UN has also launched a global vaccination initiative. Given the impact on the global economy, funding has been an especial problem, as it has for ongoing operations, and the 'UN Comprehensive Response to COVID-19' has a dedicated funding package attached. The UNSC has been criticized for a slow coordinated response, especially regarding the global ceasefire, which aims to open up humanitarian access to the world's most vulnerable in conflict zones.
Office of the Secretary-General
United Nations Comprehensive Response to COVID-19 The 'UN Comprehensive Response to COVID-19' is a policy document issued by the United Nations Secretary-General on 25 June 2020, which aims to coordinate the United Nations System to "save lives, protect societies, recover better". The policy document sets out what must be done to deliver a global response "that leaves no-one behind", reduces global vulnerability to future pandemics, builds resilience to future shocks, especially climate change, and addresses "the severe and systemic inequalities exposed by the pandemic". The document focuses on three main operational approaches, namely delivering a large coordinated and comprehensive response on health; adopting policies to address the adverse human rights, humanitarian, and socioeconomic, humanitarian effects; and creating a recovery process that "builds back better". As part of the United Nations' response, the UN Secretary-General has been prominent in ensuring the maintenance of normal UN operations, in launching events, and making in appeals on behalf of the United Nations System, including for the world's first global ceasefire and for billions of dollars in funding. He has also defended the WHO's response to the crisis and fought back against COVID-19 misinformation. As the UN's response became more systematized, he been issuing policy briefs, by theme, population, and region, to aid governments in how to address the consequences of the pandemic. The below account, while indicative, is not complete, and it does not include links to the transcripts of appeals and speeches, which can be found on multiple United Nations websites.
Timeline
March On 13 March 2020, in a video message, the UN Secretary-General assured the world that the COVID-19 virus would peak, and that the global economy would recover but, until then, "we must act together to slow the spread of the virus and look after each other". On 15 March, he announced that the UN was putting in places measures to protect staff while affirming that it would continue normal operations. On 19 March, the Secretary-General held his first virtual press conference, stating, "more than ever before, we need solidarity, hope and the political will to see this crisis through together". On 23 March, the Secretary-General called for the world's first global ceasefire to support the bigger battle against COVID-19, a "common enemy that is now threatening all of humankind". On 24 March, the Secretary-General welcomed the Group of 20 industrialized powers (G20) decision to convene an emergency virtual summit on the pandemic and recommended three areas for discussion. On 25 March, the UN launched a major humanitarian appeal and $2 billion coordinated global humanitarian response plan to aid the most affected and most vulnerable countries and prevent COVID-19 from "circling back around the globe". Echoing his 23 March appeal to warring parties across the globe for an immediate global ceasefire, he called on those fighting in Yemen to cease hostilities and increase efforts to counter a potential COVID-19 outbreak. On 26 March, the Secretary-General emphasized at the G20 virtual summit that a sustainable global economy must arise once the COVID-19 pandemic is reversed, as the G20 committed to inject over $5 trillion into the global economy to counteract the effects of the pandemic. On 29 March, the UN in New York donated 250,000 face masks to New York City health workers, with the Secretary-General making the handover. On 31 March, he launched a comprehensive socioeconomic plan, Shared Responsibility, Global Solidarity: Responding to the Socio-economic Impacts of COVID-19, to "defeat the virus and build a better world".
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