The COVID-19 pandemic marked a disrupting point for the world, compounded by an unprecedented global health crisis with severe economic and social impacts that highlighted existing inequalities and differences. Low income neighbourhoods are more likely to be hit by coronavirus cases and its negative impact. and impact as most of them may lack access to health care, lost their jobs and became unemployed.
At the beginning of 2020, the path towards the achievement 2030 SDG Agenda was on track and the global community committed to accelerate efforts and sustainable solutions to the world’s biggest challenges, ranging from eradicating poverty and reducing gender inequality to addressing climate change. However, in only some months, the COVID-19 pandemic brought an unprecedented situation and threatens to reverse years of progress on the global goals, on poverty, hunger, health care and education. While the virus has impacted everyone, it is especially affecting the most vulnerable people.
Urgent and innovative responses are needed to surpass this period of crisis but people should be at the centre of these solutions to achieve more equitable and sustainable outcomes for all. Against this backdrop, the community has played an exceptional role in the social response to the global pandemic by providing care and attention to the most vulnerable and affected.
2020 is the 75th anniversary of the United Nations. In this framework an initiative for promoting dialogue in main global issues was launched to celebrate it along the year. However the COVID-19 pandemic marked a disrupting point for the world, compounded by an unprecedented global health crisis with severe economic and social impacts. In these harsh times, more than ever global governance and leadership should be strengthened in order to build a better future for all.
Kindly note that this session has been postponed and will take place within the International Day of Mental Heatlh. Keep posted or contact us to know more!
As COVID-19 continues spreading in many countries and will stay with us for a while, posing a serious threat to our health, security and lives, our societies are facing unprecedented challenges, especially with regard to social interaction, information, health, education and even global governance and leadership.
3rd Session – Keeping mentally healthy amidst the Covid-19 pandemic?
Since March 2020, most countries in the world have been in lockdown due to COVID-19 pandemic, increasing exponentially in people the experience of fear to the new uncertainty or the unknown. The principal factor of fear is to contract the virus, however significant changes to our daily lives as mobility restrictions and social distancing are additional factors increasing the level of distress in people. Moreover, the economic and employment crisis derived from COVID-19 pandemic are creating difficult situations for many social groups who are more exposed to anxiety and depression feelings. The World Health Organisation is providing advice and guidance to governments and workers of health institutions in general to better look after mental health. There is a risk of massive mental health crisis in the coming months due to COVID-19, according to a policy brief issued by the United Nations last 14th of May. Specific population groups – such as health workers, children and adolescents, older people, people with pre-existing mental issues, people working from home – are at particular risk.
As COVID-19 continues spreading in many countries and will stay with us for a while, posing a serious threat to our health, security and lives, our societies are facing unprecedented challenges, especially with regard to social interaction, information, health, education and even global governance and leadership.
Since March 2020, due to COVID-19 pandemic lockdown, the use of either social media, search engines, video sites and messaging applications (or combinations of these) to get news has increased in most countries (Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism) as well as the spread of false news and misinformation giving their nature to readily share information. Most relevant social networks such as Facebook, Google, LinkedIn, Twitter and YouTube, among others, published a joint statement to combat misinformation. As more people are using social media for news and updates, trusting content is more difficult to reach.
Gustavo Cardoso, Full Professor of Communication Sciences at ISCTE – Lisbon University Institute, Portugal and a member of the Innovation Lab Annenberg School of Communication and World Internet Project both based at the University of Southern California – DC Lisbon
Ana Pinto Martinho, Professor at ISCTE-IUL and Editor at the European Journalism Observatory website – DC Lisbon
Gabriela Oliveira, Project manager at Two Impulse, chatbot to combat “fake news” and answering specific questions about the Coronavirus – DC Evora
As COVID-19 continues spreading in many countries and will stay with us for a while, posing a serious threat to our health, security and lives, our societies are facing unprecedented challenges, especially with regard to social interaction, information, health, education and even global governance and leadership.
Since March 2020, most countries in the world have been in lockdown due to COVID-19 pandemic increasing exponentially the use of digital services allowing videoconferencing and online collaboration by people, public institutions, private companies and of course, entrepreneurs with the aim of keeping the work going on while staying safe at home. However a high percentage of the society locked and forced to work from home had to quickly learn how better use these tools to continue working during the lockdown. Digital competence, which refers to the confident and critical usage of the full range of digital technologies for information, communication and basic problem-solving in all aspects of life, is nowadays one of the eight key competences. According to the European Digital Competence Framework for Citizens (DigComp) it includes 5 areas five areas (information and data literacy; communication and collaboration; digital content creation; safety; and problem solving) and 21 competences. However, only 31% of the EU population possess advanced internet user skills according to the Digital Agenda Scoreboard 2019 and 11% have never been online.
As COVID-19 continues spreading in many countries and will stay with us for a while, posing a serious threat to our health, security and lives, our societies are facing unprecedented challenges, especially with regard to social interaction, information, health, education and even global governance and leadership.
This cycle of sessions will focus in the fields of digital competencies, mental health, information, and global governance with the aim of providing a digital space to specialists, representatives of public, private and third sectors, entrepreneurs as well as the general public to share experiences, ideas and expertise in responding to this new emergency.
Sessions planned will focus on:
Digital skills– 04 June 2020 – 3pm London time
Misinformation and confusion. How to tackle fake news?– 18 June 2020 – 3pm London time
Keeping mentally healthy in pandemic? – 25 June 2020 – 3pm London time
Global governance and the role of United Nations– 30 June 2020 – 3pm London time
